Diary of a Shopkeeper, 19th June
The Scottish Fire and Rescue Service reported last week that Orkney has, per head of population, the country’s highest rate of fatalities due to traffic collisions. Some press coverage of this statistic began with phrases like, ‘It may surprise you to hear…’ But for any regular user of Orkney roads, it’s surely no surprise at all. I’m actually surprised there aren’t more accidents and fatalities, given the dangerous driving that’s on view every day.
I’ve a short drive to and from work – 20 minutes or so – and usually do deliveries in the van for another 20 minutes. In that hour, it’s normal for me to see at least one driver on their phone or texting, several instances of speeding, many failures to indicate, and – most frequent – incorrect driving at roundabouts. Recently I was early for an event upstairs at Kirkjuvagr’s distillery and spent 15 minutes watching the traffic navigate the roundabout that joins Ayre Road, Harbour Street and Junction Road. Fully half failed to signal correctly (including one police car!) and a couple of times vehicles had to brake sharply as another driver was doing something other than what they’d signalled.
I fear I’m starting to sound like Victor Meldrew. But it’s not just me feeling change and improvement is needed.
In response to the SFRS’s figures, David Dawson, Chair of the OIC’s Road Safety Forum, floated the idea of reducing some speed limits across the county. This generated – surprise surprise! – a lively debate on social media. Analysis of the scores of comments posted provides insight into the views of the Orkney public.
The most poplar response, with 26% of comments, agreed that too many people drove too fast, in both rural and town settings. Several respondents pointed out that, although speed may not always be the cause of an accident, it invariable makes the results worse than they would’ve been had the vehicles had been travelling more slowly.
The next most popular response, with 20% of comments, was the exact opposite – that a minority of vehicles moving too slowly causes frustration amongst other drivers and encourages fast overtaking when opportunity finally presents itself. Some commentators singled out older drivers for criticism. (Orkney’s population is ageing: we better get used to cautious, older drivers!) People are tolerant of slow-moving tractors and other farm vehicles, but the increased number of cyclists on our roads – all year round, but particularly during tourist season – drew comment. The time for cycle lanes alongside our major roads is surely here.
Many people felt that our traffic laws simply needed to be enforced more rigorously by the police. That covered 17% of comments.
And in fourth place, with 9%, came calls for improvement to our road infrastructure. I touched on the issue of population in last week’s diary: in the past 20 years it’s increased by 3,000. Not every one of those extra people has a car, of course, as some live in urban areas and don’t need one, and many will be family groups. But what would be a sensible estimate for extra cars on our roads? 500? 1,000? In the same time, we’ve seen a boom in tourism, which is good for the economy, but makes the roads more crowded, and also slower moving, due to the increased number of cycles and tour buses – not to mention visiting drivers unfamiliar with road layouts.
As with so many aspects of life, road infrastructure and driving habits must improve to acknowledge the fact that our population is growing, and ageing, and increases enormously during tourist season. We’re not going to go back to the 1970s when the population was a quarter lower, cars a third smaller, and tourists far fewer. If we don’t act, we’ll literally be driving ourselves to death.
This diary appeared in The Orcadian on 22nd June 2022. A new one appears weekly. I post them in this blog a few days after each newspaper appearance, with added illustrations., and occasional small corrections or additions.