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New fast-track motorway lane for occupied vehicles announced
4 Jul 2004
The government is to introduce a new "fast-track" lane on some motorways in response to the growing congestion on Britain's roads. The lane, which will only be available for use by cars, vans, lorries and buses with one or more occupant and is guaranteed not to be used for "dodgy contra flow systems or workmen drinking tea", is said to be a new invention.
"We're very proud of this brand new idea, nothing like it has ever been seen before," said the Transport Secretary, Alistair "Badger" Darling, who explained that it came about after he visited the United States, where such schemes are commonplace. "And what's more it won't cost us a fortune to implement: we'll convert the existing bus lanes and hard shoulders into this new type of lane – all it will cost is a bit of paint and a few signs."
However, there remain a number of problems with the proposed scheme, not least how the authorities will be able to identify unoccupied vehicles travelling at high speed. "All of the systems I have seen rely on cameras, but what if there was a child in one of the cars, or even a very short person whose head did not come up to the top of the steering wheel?" said Dr Douglas Ramsbottom of pressure group Transport 2000, which is currently nearing the end of a five-year consultation, initiated in 2000, about what to call itself after the year 2000 – the current favourite is said to be Transport 2003. "If such people were to drive on the motorways then it could play havoc with such a system."
A government spokesman said that its new fast-track system would not unfairly discriminate against vertically-challenged people, but he was unable to confirm what would happen to cars that were found to be travelling in fast-track lanes without occupants.
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Wow, look at this!
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