Forum topic: What can we do to stop these deadly boy racers?

[Photo taken from the Metropolitan Police Twitter feed]

This was Palmers Green Triangle around 1.30am today. It looks very much as if this was the result of criminal "boy racers" racing one another. But even if it wasn't a race and was caused by ice, at least one driver must have been well over the speed limit.

Did anyone see this happening?

This was at a spot where I've crossed the road hundreds of times, and I'm sure that goes for plenty of our readers.

Less than twelve hours later other boy racers were at it again, in broad daylight this time and in heavy traffic on an icy road, racing towards Wood Green station from Haringey Civic Centre. They're out every weekend on our local roads. It's a problem that seems endemic to Outer London. How can we put a stop to this immature behaviour that seems to be peculiar to men? Chemical castration? There aren't enough police to prevent it, it needs a much higher degree of societal disapproval of dangerous driving than we currently have in this country.

My perception for a while is that things have been getting worse: more cars going faster and a ever growing minority going crazy. Yesterday on a short trip I witnessed three blatant red light runs, one highly dangerous, and one black Golf taking the third lane route from the North Circular through to the library traffic lights to overtake two lines of cars clearly not going quickly enough. (S)he then pulled in tight and late just before the lights.

Blame “BMW” for producing souped up cars, blame the shortage of Police but in reality we have to blame the drivers, and that’s a very large pool, so it means everyone taking personal responsibility and driving appropriately, always, everywhere.

And on top of that, speeding (like mobile phone use until very recently) appears to be some form of pseudo crime. It seems to me that if there is a law then there is a reason for having that law and so the same law should be enforced and held as equivalent to other laws, otherwise get rid of it. But that logic doesn’t apply to speeding , either in general perception nor in items such as home insurance declarations (“You must tell us if you’ve broken the law but were not interested in speeding.”)

Politicians could help with that; we all have to be better drivers (where appropriate); and all need to proactively change the frame of acceptable reference for driving speeds as Basil concludes.

I can't remember exactly when, but twenty or more years ago American research was published which showed that postponing the age when people learned to drive had a marked beneficial effect on subsequent driver behaviour. I think the optimum age was found to be a little short of the mid-twenties, but it was claimed that a single year would make a difference. Shorty afterwards I mentioned this finding to David Burrowes MP who said something like: "Waste of time; all the pressure is to reduce the age at which people learn."

Which is of no more help than any expectation that the police will apply speeding law - see Karl B's earlier contribution.

On the other hand - much as many of us would like to see a lot more done - quite a bit of effort has been put into the use of road design as a calming tool: projecting and narrowed entrances to streets, tables and cushions, even centre of carriageway pedestrian refuge islands (which can in some circumstances help just a little) and cycle lanes, and of course speed cameras.

For all sorts of reasons to do with street scene, quality of life, entitlement not to be spied, on I dislike cameras, but with very hefty fines and long suspension of driving licences something would be achieved. And I've always thought that much could be done with parking arrangements (parking at right angles, or in echelon formation, to the kerb), especially on wide residential streets such as those on the Lakes Estate, Palmers Green - though the Government's shocking willingness to allow front gardens to be turned into a car parks makes that more difficult. Remember also that secure bike parking could be arranged to do its bit to make speeding difficult (In this context note the advent of the Mayor's 'Healthier Streets' project).

For a day or two this week I toyed with writing a short contribution to this website claiming that on some routes things have got better for cyclists/walkers - poor air quality apart - as a result of congestion and endless lines of parked cars. I stick by that view, which strengthens my thoughts about using parking arrangements to slow traffic. However, we do need a means of slowing traffic on through routes without cutting down available carriageway too far or facilitating speeding. There's no doubt about it: in the short term cameras, high fines and suspension from driving stand out as the solution.

But there has to be a longer term solution which cuts down the number of cars and replaces them with public transport, cycling and walking, and puts much of goods on to rail. Indeed, I think that many politicians know this, and are thinking about the cities of the future. Whether they have the nerve to make it happen is a different issue, although I do think there will be big changes in that direction in the next 20 years

Ouch....not a fun thread for a young(ish) male BMW owner......

Another shocking example of dangerous driving, this time in Wandsworth. And it sounds as if the driver who crashed was racing another car which (surprise surprise) didn't stop.

http://www.thisislocallondon.co.uk/news/15046073.Shocking_photos_of_wrecked_BMW_after_woman_seriously_injured_in_Wandsworth_crash/

A young man (or more likely an immature showoff in the guise of a young man) was driving. He wasn't badly injured, his young female passenger is in a serious condition...

Can't we just wait until they've all killed each other?

That the driver hasn't been arrested says all you need to know about the attitude to dangerous driving. Of course had there been a death rather than an injury he would have been arrested.

The boy racer problem is also reported on in the Enfield Gazette:

http://www.enfield-today.co.uk/article.cfm?id=116623&headline=Enfield%27s%20%27Fast%20and%20Furious%27-style%20boy%20racers%20putting%20lives%20at%20risk§ionIs=news&searchyear=2017

But there seems to be some confusion between Green Lanes and the racing along the A10. I don't believe that anyone could have been going at 100mph along Green Lanes.