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I was born and raised in Castle Point and now live in Southend-on-Sea but over the years I have lived in some of the most congested areas of the country including Portsmouth, Rochester and Dunstable. This has given me a keen sense for the issues facing drivers on the roads today and where improvements can be made in our traffic and road systems. It was a relief to find the ABD a few years ago; here was an organisation that supported drivers thinking for themselves and I wanted to support them. In 1991 I was the youngest person in Essex to pass the IAM Advanced test (just 17 weeks after my DVLA test at age 17). I 'renewed my vows' by taking the RoSPA test in October 2011 and am pleased to report a Gold pass. While this is not a qualification for the ABD per se, I feel it does allow me to speak for the thinking driver and this is one of the reasons I wanted to represent the ABD in my home town of Southend. I believe many of the systems being implemented on our roads are over-authoritarian and too 'stupid'. Increasingly taking decisions away from drivers is dangerous and many schemes are now causing more danger to road users and pedestrians because of this. I intend to campaign locally for: a) a re-consideration of some dangerous traffic control systems locally b) increased throughput at junctions by more 'intelligent' traffic signals c) a revision of the disastrous Victoria Gateway junction d) attempt to get the Council to invest taxpayer money in some road user education as an alternative to more bumps, kerbs, bollards and lights I hope you will contact me with your ideas, enthusiasm and support. |