Martin Cassini Explained

Martin Cassini is a TV programme-maker and campaigner for traffic system reform.^[1] He advocates replacing priority (an engineering model) with equality (a social model) to provide a level playing-field on which all road-users can act sociably. This, he says, would remove the "need" for most traffic controls, and solve many of our road safety and congestion problems, which stem from those very controls.^{[2] [3] [4] [5]}

Cassini has contributed to Economic Affairs (journal of the Institute of Economic Affairs), The Times, Guardian, Daily Telegraph, BBC Newsnight and Traffic Technology International.

Cassini's reforms overlap with the shared space movement of Hans Monderman and Ben Hamilton-Baillie, which is demonstrating in Bohmte and Drachten that peaceful coexistence can flourish when road-users are free to use their own judgement on roads designed to stimulate rather than enforce appropriate conduct.^{[6] [7]} His ideas also echo the theory of spontaneous order,^[8] which states that the more complex the dance of human movement (e.g. a skateboard park), the less useful are attempts to control it.

Cassini helped instigate a lights-off trial in Portishead, Somerset,^[9] which began on 14 September 2009. Conducted in association with North Somerset Council and Colin Buchanan, it went permanent after journey times fell by over 50% with no loss of pedestrian safety, despite greater numbers now using the route (over 2000 vehicles and 300 pedestrians an hour).^{[10] [11]} Minor trials took place in Westminster, Oxford, and Bristol in 2009.^[12] But deregulation is not enough on its own, says Cassini. It needs to be accompanied by changes in road design, culture, the driving test and the law.^[13]

Cassini is a member of the International Advisory Council of the Kyoto World Cities New Mobility Program.^[14]

Publications

• Cassini . Martin . December 2006 . In Your Car No One Can Hear You Scream! Are Traffic Controls in Cities a Necessary Evil? . Economic Affairs . 26 . 4 . 10.1111/j.1468-0270.2006.00675.x . 951309 . 75–78 . 154388012 .

Articles and references

^[15] ref>Web site: Caught red-handed in a red-light district, by Tom Hodgkinson. Issue 417 The Oldie. September 2022. I’m all for the under-reported anti-traffic-lights movement and its leader, journalist Martin Cassini … [he] runs a website, Equality Streets, which campaigns for equal rights between pedestrians, bicyclists and cars, rather than the system of priority …. ^{[16] [17] [18]}

Further reading

• Web site: Cassini . Martin . The Thunderer: We should trust drivers and phase out traffic lights . . 9 October 2015 .
• Web site: Lights switch-off stalled by 'Bristol council bureaucracy' . . 1 September 2010 . 19 May 2016 .
• Web site: Call to get rid of traffic lights in Braunton . . 5 September 2009 . 19 May 2016 .
• Web site: Traffic lights campaigner welcomes Bristol switch-off . Bristol Post . 7 November 2009 . 19 May 2016 .
• Web site: Lights switch-off stalled by 'Bristol council bureaucracy' . Bristol Post . 1 September 2010 . 19 May 2016 . * Whole article Buchanan report
• In Pursuit of Elegance by Matthew May, Broadway Books (Crown Publishing Group, division of Random House, New York), 2009
• Web site: NorthDevon . This is . RNIB against Braunton traffic lights scheme . North Devon Journal . 31 October 2009 . 19 May 2016 .
• Shropshire Star
• Bristol Evening Post 15 Sept 2009
• Southwest Business

External links

• https://web.archive.org/web/20110629165459/http://www.london.gov.uk/mayor/economic_unit/events/docs/18112009-keith-firth.pdf Colin Buchanan -"The effect of removing traffic control regulations at road junctions in the UK"
• https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/cf_dev/AbsByAuth.cfm?per_id=724820# SSRN Author Page

Notes and References

1. Web site: I like traffic lights, but only when they're dismantled? . Cassini. Martin. 23 January 2007 . The Times . The Berlin Wall of the multibillion traffic control establishment is manned by highly paid experts. As a traffic-light-free world threatens their raison d'être, perhaps their resistance is understandable. .
2. Web site: On Roads, by Joe Moran. Fletcher. Martin. 26 June 2009. The Independent. When the television producer Martin Cassini, an advocate of shared-space design, declared on Newsnight that all traffic lights should be dismantled, Jeremy Paxman pulled a face and said "Crikey!".
3. Web site: London: still stuck in a jam . MacDonald . Nico . 19 March 2007 . Spiked-online.com . There is a sound argument, espoused by commentators such as Martin Cassini, that we have too many traffic lights . https://web.archive.org/web/20080321094949/http://www.spiked-online.com/index.php?%2Fsite%2Farticle%2F2974%2F . 21 March 2008 . dead . dmy-all .
4. News: Courtesy traffic system campaigner seeks green light . Kane . Conor. 25 November 2011 . The Irish Times . The town of Portishead outside Bristol tried out the system ... after the local council saw a report by Mr Cassini on BBC's Newsnight..
5. Web site: Should traffic lights be banned? . Carfrae . Jack . 8 September 2010 . Yahoo! Cars . Martin Cassini, the man who instigated the Portishead switch-off, is campaigning to get traffic lights canned and unnecessary road signs removed from Britain's roads as part of his 'Roads FiT for People' movement. . dead . https://web.archive.org/web/20110716162853/http://uk.cars.yahoo.com/03092010/36/traffic-lights-banned-0.html . 16 July 2011 . dmy-all .
6. Web site: Traffic signals should get the red light. Phibbs. Harry. 6 May 2009. The Guardian. Martin Cassini, of Equality Streets (a relaunch of FiT Roads), says: " ... air pollution in London exceeds EC environmental and health guidelines ... vehicle emissions cause 10 times as many deaths as accidents.'".
7. Web site: No Idle Matter . Cassini . Martin . October 2007 . UK International Press, Traffic Technology International . As [Professor Roy Colvile of Imperial College] says, "a car moving at constant low speed uses very little more fuel than it does when idling." In the shared-space model, as vehicles filter at virtual tick-over revs, they are getting somewhere. But in the standard traffic management model, as they idle and get nowhere fast, they use a quarter of the fuel and emit a quarter of the CO2. When they restart, engine revs – along with fuel use and CO2 – reach a peak. . dead . https://web.archive.org/web/20101105224436/http://www.fitroads.com/NoIdleMatter.pdf . 5 November 2010 . dmy-all .
8. Web site: The case against traffic lights, by Martin Cassini . 14 January 2008. Newsnight. "No rules? It would be anarchy!" Peaceful anarchy. Live and let live. Like a skateboard park, where teens of all stripes nod each other on and merge in harmony..
9. Web site: Lights out at Portishead traffic junction . 15 September 2009 . The Bristol Evening Post . The trial was influenced by Martin Cassini ... who produced a documentary which was shown to North Somerset Council. Mr Cassini said: "If you remove priority, you remove the "need" for speed and allow everyone to do what's natural ... watch the road and filter safely.'" .
10. Web site: Consultant and film producer team up to 'push boundaries' of junction controls. 17 July 2009. TransportXtra . Keith Firth, Buchanan's director of traffic, has teamed up with Martin Cassini who made headlines when he wrote a report arguing that urban traffic would flow more smoothly if many traffic signals were removed..
11. Web site: Removing traffic engineering control – the awkward truth?. TEC Magazine.
12. Web site: Traffic lights campaigner welcomes Bristol switch-off . 7 November 2009 . Bristol Evening Post . His work has also influenced the trial switch-off being carried out by Westminster Council and he backed the Evening Post Put That Light Out Campaign. .
13. 10.1111/j.1468-0270.2010.01997.x. The Real WMD. Cassini. Martin. June 2010. Blackwell, Oxford (Institute of Economic Affairs). 153276504. Even in the absence of other elements required to make this [traffic lights-off trial] work properly – including a culture change from priority to equality, and streetscape redesign to communicate that equality, there are unprompted improvements..
14. Web site: International Advisory Council . Ecoplan.org and New Mobility Agenda . dead . https://web.archive.org/web/20100726135426/http://www.ecoplan.org/briefs/general/panel.htm . 26 July 2010 . dmy-all .
15. Web site: Britain needs far fewer traffic lights, by Martin Cassini. 27 February 2023. Daily Telegraph. Instead of abdicating human agency to technology, we could, at far less cost, simplify the rules of the road, and reform the driving test to teach people differently. .
16. Web site: Town planners will keep us stuck at traffic lights if they can get away with it, by Tom Welsh. 17 March 2018. Britain is addicted to a “command and control” transport model, one which campaigner Martin Cassini describes as contriving conflict, dictating our behaviour, and depriving us of choice..
17. Web site: Restricting drivers won't solve the world's problems, by Martin Cassini. 21 April 2022. Daily Telegraph. Any move to mandate lower motorway speed limits would … fuel the extortion racket otherwise known as speed enforcement..
18. Web site: This man is campaigning to ditch Devon's traffic lights - and here's why, by Joel Cooper. 15 March 2018. Devon Live. Letting human nature take its cooperative course not only transforms road-user relationships and road safety, but also congestion and air quality..