I'm willing to forget their opposition to any form of road-pricing, removal of tolls from the Forth Road Bridge, and animosity to trams for a second (just for a second, mind!) ... and give due praise to the new SNP Government for the way they handled the extremely regrettable rise in road fatalities that was announced today - BBC coverage here and Scottish Executive response here.
It really is a depressing picture - 314 dead people every year in Scotland; that's more than one every working day ... 1 road death in Scotland every Monday to Friday of every single week. And that's all part of an even more shocking 10 deaths a day at the UK-level.
I've mentioned before how I feel it pretty incredible that this doesn't get more political attention ... and broadly I welcome what was announced in terms of setting up an "Expert Panel", to include "the police, advanced driving experts, road safety organisations, the Children's Commissioner, youth groups and others".
I do hope the others will include ALL forms of road users ... and when it looks at 'driving culture' it simply has to address advertising. Advertising plays a significant part in 'forming' driving culture; everybody knows it; nobody talks about it; the "Expert Panel" must face up to it.
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