Lately, it seems this blog has gone from being a humorous take on daily life to a crusade against Vägverket. So be it. Someone, I have come to realize, has to do it.
As I have written about earlier, there are some astounding facts related to fatal road accidents that, as far as I could see, Vägverket does nothing about. Today, the perception that VV doesn't care one iota was confirmed by Claes Tingvall.
According to NTF, 55% of all vehicles exceed the 30 kph speed limits that usually are to be found around schools and similar areas. Looking at the figures, 40% are found between 31 and 40 kph. 12% are found between 41 and 50 kph. 3% are found above 51 kph.
In other words, 85% of all cars drive either below the limit or just ever so slightly above it. Taking into account that a lot of the 30 kph limits are put up to protect environmentally sensitive areas, the number of people speeding around, say, schools has to be even smaller.
Yet Tingvall, if done without blushing it surely has to be worthy of an Oscar, Emmy or at the very least an honorable mention, stated the following (translated, obviously):
-"Speed is the area we've missed out on in Sweden. We're good at using seat belts and not driving drunk, but it seems speeding by 10 kph is okey."
I'm living in a country where 50% of all roads are below approvable standards, meaning they are, in fact, dangerous. A country where 75% of all fatal accidents could have been avoided, had Vägverket done its job and followed the given guidelines. A country where 30% of all people involved in fatal road accidents are driving under the influence of alcohol. A country where 50% of all people involved in fatal road accidents are driving without their seat belt on.
Ho-hum.
I'm living in a country where 15% drive faster than 10kph above the speed limits at 30 kph zones, AND THAT'S THE FUCKING PROBLEM?
This is beyond all belief.
/JP
Wednesday 20 August 2008
Saturday 16 August 2008
The universal cure
As most of you know, Vägverket loves speed cameras and, generally, considers them the universal cure to everything from speeding to drunk driving to people driving without their seat belts on. Recently, the arguments for putting up speed cameras have become weaker by the minute. They don't really decrease speeding, they don't decrease road accidents, they don't prevent drunk driving and they don't prevent people from driving without their seat belts on.
The latest reason? It's, eh, wait, eh, good for, eh, eh, the, eh, environment!
Consider me a sceptic. First off, you have to take into account actually building the cameras as well as the extra signs telling people that speed cameras are coming up. Then you have to add the pollution coming from the big, fat trucks driving around with the cameras, erecting them all over the country.
Taking into account the fact that modern cars, at highway speeds, pollute less than old cars do at standstill, the overall effect has to be absolutely miniscule.
What kind of man-cow-excrements is next? Telling us speed cameras will cure AIDS and cancer, feed the entire third world and create worldwide peace?
I would, in all honesty, not be surprised were I to find out that Vägverket is secretly controlled by an evil Lord of the Speed Camera Cult trying to take over the world. Human sacrifice (mainly virgins and motorcyclists, I'm guessing) would probably be in there somewhere as well.
/JP
The latest reason? It's, eh, wait, eh, good for, eh, eh, the, eh, environment!
Consider me a sceptic. First off, you have to take into account actually building the cameras as well as the extra signs telling people that speed cameras are coming up. Then you have to add the pollution coming from the big, fat trucks driving around with the cameras, erecting them all over the country.
Taking into account the fact that modern cars, at highway speeds, pollute less than old cars do at standstill, the overall effect has to be absolutely miniscule.
What kind of man-cow-excrements is next? Telling us speed cameras will cure AIDS and cancer, feed the entire third world and create worldwide peace?
I would, in all honesty, not be surprised were I to find out that Vägverket is secretly controlled by an evil Lord of the Speed Camera Cult trying to take over the world. Human sacrifice (mainly virgins and motorcyclists, I'm guessing) would probably be in there somewhere as well.
/JP
Friday 15 August 2008
Today, tomorrow, something else
A while back I said I would get back to you all about why I think that the Toyota Prius is nowhere near the so called green benchmark it is supposed to be. In reality, it's a poorly built, overpriced, not very green piece of marketing fairy dust.
Top Gear has proven in tests that in highway speeds, the Prius is thirstier than a BMW M3.
Fifth Gear has proven in tests that in city traffic speeds, the Prius is barely less thirsty than a Jeep.
In the long run, mainly because the various parts being shipped all over the world, the Prius does more damage to our planet than a Range Rover.
Yet people somehow perceive it as "green".
Time to wake up, people?
/JP
Top Gear has proven in tests that in highway speeds, the Prius is thirstier than a BMW M3.
Fifth Gear has proven in tests that in city traffic speeds, the Prius is barely less thirsty than a Jeep.
In the long run, mainly because the various parts being shipped all over the world, the Prius does more damage to our planet than a Range Rover.
Yet people somehow perceive it as "green".
Time to wake up, people?
/JP
Saturday 9 August 2008
Belted statistics
Time once more to strengthen the position of TCO as the leading anti-Vägverket blog on the interweb. It's not so much that I deplore the institution as such, but rather that I find its doings so pathetically inept it has long since passed into the realm of the provocative. It is, without even so much as a shadow of a glimpse of doubt time to start over and do it properly.
In addition to the 30% that drink and drive, as blogged about earlier, according to a recent study, 50% of all people who suffer fatal accidents in Sweden aren't wearing their seatbelts. 50%. One in every two. Half of the entire crop, as it were. A simply astounding figure.
What do the good folks (read: intellectually challenged) at Vägverket do about this then?
Nothing.
Nothing they can do, they say. It's a problem on an individual level.
Bullshit, I say.
They do however - and all those who didn't see this one coming miles away raise their hands - see it as a sure sign of people driving too fast. You see, despite the fact that a lot of the victims had been able to walk away from the accidents without so much as a bump on their car, let alone their body, had they only worn seatbelts (this through Vägverket's own admission), the fact that they didn't wear them is a sign of them all being the kind of persons who are likely to take chances, which in turn is a sign of the kind of persons who are likely to speed. Tough to follow the reasoning? No wonder, there usually doesn't seem to be a whole lot of thinking behind their reasoning.
Anyway, the solution? You guessed it. More speed cameras.
Abso-fucking-lutely clinically insane.
As is this, for the Swedish speaking among you. I might translate it later, but for now I'll just do a bit of linking. It's worth a read and yet another sign of the downright jaw-dropping incompetence of Vägverket's.
Vägverket fighting journalist, refusing to adhere to EU regulations.
/JP
In addition to the 30% that drink and drive, as blogged about earlier, according to a recent study, 50% of all people who suffer fatal accidents in Sweden aren't wearing their seatbelts. 50%. One in every two. Half of the entire crop, as it were. A simply astounding figure.
What do the good folks (read: intellectually challenged) at Vägverket do about this then?
Nothing.
Nothing they can do, they say. It's a problem on an individual level.
Bullshit, I say.
They do however - and all those who didn't see this one coming miles away raise their hands - see it as a sure sign of people driving too fast. You see, despite the fact that a lot of the victims had been able to walk away from the accidents without so much as a bump on their car, let alone their body, had they only worn seatbelts (this through Vägverket's own admission), the fact that they didn't wear them is a sign of them all being the kind of persons who are likely to take chances, which in turn is a sign of the kind of persons who are likely to speed. Tough to follow the reasoning? No wonder, there usually doesn't seem to be a whole lot of thinking behind their reasoning.
Anyway, the solution? You guessed it. More speed cameras.
Abso-fucking-lutely clinically insane.
As is this, for the Swedish speaking among you. I might translate it later, but for now I'll just do a bit of linking. It's worth a read and yet another sign of the downright jaw-dropping incompetence of Vägverket's.
Vägverket fighting journalist, refusing to adhere to EU regulations.
/JP
Monday 4 August 2008
Sorry for the lack of updates
But things have been kind of hectic, in fact unusually so. The stock market tends to be slower during the summer, but things are crazy at the firm none the less. Will try to shape up like an American at McDonalds (hey, "round" is a shape too, you know).
So what has happened since the last time I blogged? Well.. Not much to write home, or away, about to be honest. In short:
Amy Winehouse is, as always, putting the fun in dysfunctional.
Michael Jackson is, apparently, not only a very, very, very, very, very creepy individual, but also a "spendaholic" near bankruptcy. They say that money talks, guess his said "good-bye".
A company is making ladies' tights from some sort of coffee beans. Probably great if your legs fall asleep.
And finally, stop me if this one is offensive. Oh, wait. You can't, can you? Anyway, the cure for children with learning difficulties? Concentration camps.
I know, I know. Those were crap. But look on the positive side, now I don't have to work as hard in order to shape up.
/JP
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