I’ve heard Danny Dorling talk twice now on how choosing to limit the difference between the ‘haves’ and the ‘have-nots’ is beneficial to the quality of life for all. Great graphics bringing to life the facts and figures of his subject, Human Geography, and the juxtaposition of what are seemingly unconnected statistics make for entertaining presentations. If only I’d known how interesting geogger’s could be.

Now he’s applying it to road safety, and this lecture he gave in Westminster to the Parliamentary Advisory Council for Transport Safety gives a compelling reason for introducing 20mph and for reordering the priority of people and vehicles.

Child deaths.

By viewing the death toll on the roads as a public health issue rather than a transport safety one, and comparing it to public health problems of the past and the large sums of money spent eradicating other diseases, he highlights just how inadequate funding for road safety is.

Not everyone’s a depressed navel gazer like yours truly, so the lecture, which plus questions is just over an hour long, isn’t going to get to everyone. These ideas really need compressing into thought provoking snippets in a way that opens the nation’s eyes to the devil on the doorstep.

Something similar to this perhaps, the first in a trilogy of short clips tackling the negative attitudes towards cyclists in Australia…