Johnadams

Author's details

Date registered: November 30, -0001
URL: http://www.john-adams.co.uk

Latest posts

  1. What is risk? — January 13, 2012
  2. Thinking Streets — January 8, 2012
  3. Reducing zero risk — July 8, 2011
  4. Road Safety: Myth Perpetuation — June 27, 2011
  5. Priorities — May 5, 2011

Most commented posts

  1. Is God trying to tell us something? — 21 comments
  2. The Cream Buns Act — 13 comments
  3. Seat belt legislation and the Isles Report — 9 comments
  4. Bicycle bombs: a threat to Westminster? — 9 comments
  5. Proving a negative and the onus of proof — 9 comments

Author's posts listings

Jan
13
2012

What is risk?

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A new book from Cambridge University Press – Successful Science communication, (Bennett and Jennings eds.) – contains 26 chapters with helpful things to say to people concerned to communicate complex ideas to “the public”. Plus a chapter by me entitled Not 100% sure? The “public” understanding of risk; the reader is left to judge whether …

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Jan
08
2012

Thinking Streets

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A recent BBC radio 4 programme entitled Thinking Streets takes listeners on a refreshing tour of traffic management schemes that are elevating the status of pedestrians and cyclists relative to that of those in motor vehicles. The effect, as researcher/presenter, Angela Saini notes, is civilizing – while also reducing accidents. The programme features Ben Hamilton-Baillie, who …

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Jul
08
2011

Reducing zero risk

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Judith Hackitt head of the UK Health and Safety Executive, has recently been complaining about “the creeping culture of risk-aversion and fear of litigation” and the “jobsworths” responsible for its promotion. The HSE appears to be losing the battle. Below I set out a piece that I was asked to write for my local tenants and …

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5 comments

Jun
27
2011

Road Safety: Myth Perpetuation

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On 30 June and 1 July Oxford Brookes University is holding a History of Road Safety Symposium (http://ah.brookes.ac.uk/conference/history_of_road_safety_symposium). History, as they say, is written by the victors. The concluding speaker is Rob Gifford, Executive Director of the Parliamentary Advisory Council for Transport Safety. The title of his presentation is “How parliament came to love seat …

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May
05
2011

Priorities

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I’ve just had an email from the chair of the Bournemouth Cycling Forum with an interesting complaint. Local police are targeting “criminal” cyclists who cycle without lights and cycle on the pavement. He questions whether, in these straitened times, these should be police priorities. Does anyone have any evidence that cycling without lights is dangerous? …

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8 comments

May
05
2011

Bicycle Bomb Update

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On 20 April 2011 I was invited to speak at a conference on “Critical Infrastructure Protection” at the Counter Terror Expo at the Olympia in London. The two vast Olympia exhibition halls were filled with exhibitors selling protection against terrorists: on display were lorry-bomb-resistant barriers and bollards, blast containment solutions, CCTV and covert surveillance systems, …

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7 comments

Feb
08
2011

Two methods of transport-safety myth building

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1. Simple assertion. An example can be found in the current issue of The Economist by the journal’s Science and Technology correspondent writing under the name of Babbage (http://www.economist.com/blogs/babbage/2011/02/road_safety).  Babbage notes that the US fatality rate has been “inching down over the past half century” and then proceeds to explain why: it is the result …

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4 comments

Dec
02
2010

Managing transport risks: what works?

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I have been invited to contribute a chapter to a book called Risk Theory Handbook to be published by Springer. Publication is scheduled for a year from now, so there is still time to make changes/corrections/improvements. Comments are welcomed. Here is the abstract. Abstract What does a transport safety regulator have in common with a …

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Nov
03
2010

Drugs again

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The Daily Mail today raised my hopes that it had had a Damascene conversion on the subject of drugs – and then dashed them. Below a letter to the editor that is certain not to get published. Dear Sir The Mail is often given credit for making the political weather. Certainly many politicians claim to …

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Sep
14
2010

Risk and Freedom: the record of road safety regulation

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Moving house I have discovered 30 copies of this book that I have put on Amazon for £5 – the inducement I need to go to the post office. Below an Amazon review that I quite like. Amazon Review (*****): Risk and Freedom is a book of historic significance. Published in 1985 and out of …

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