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本当の交通安全対策とは
日本の交通安全運動を見て、その効果に疑問を持つ筆者。警察が今よりもちょっと厳しく違反を取り締まれば、交通マナーはずいぶんよくなるはずだ、と主張する。
Real Traffic Safety
By SCOTT T. HARDS
A few weeks ago Japan went through one of its semi-annual traffic safety campaigns. During these week-long efforts, police officers appear at major intersections and play human traffic light (even though the mechanical ones are working just fine), and little awnings from under which local residents watch over the flow are set up at street corners around town. I cannot help but notice, however, that the people who sit in those little tents seem to do little more than drink tea and munch senbei crackers. The whole exercise seems to have become more of a festival than any serious attempt to get people to drive more safely.
Mind you, Japan has very safe roads overall. The manners of most drivers and their safety records compare quite favorably to those of other advanced nations. What bothers me is not the death toll here, but the other traffic annoyances that could be easily erased if a concerted effort were made.
What am I talking about? High-school boys riding two and three people on a 50cc scooter. Newspaper and soba delivery people on bikes driving down the sidewalk, without any helmets. All sorts of vehicles with illegally modified mufflers blasting 100 or more decibels of sound at all hours of the day and night. Hot-rodders zooming through red lights and down narrow residential streets at up to 70 or 80 kph. Taxi drivers slamming on their brakes in a desperate effort to pick up a customer that has just flagged them, or squealing their tires in a high-speed right turn through an intersection several seconds after their right-turn arrow has vanished. I see (and hear!) violations like these every day in my neighborhood; these are not rare occurrences by any means.
So what can be done? Nothing sophisticated is required, just a good old-fashioned crackdown by police on their white bikes armed with nothing more than their ticket pads. These offenses occur simply because there is no or lax enforcement. Even when giving out parking tickets, Japanese police mark the tires of the offending vehicles with chalk first and give drivers several minutes to move before actually assessing fines.
Forget the chalk! If they immediately wrote tickets, you can bet illegal parking would drop dramatically. The same approach, if applied to moving violations, would no doubt help shrink Japan's roster of traffic accident victims.
This country's approach to traffic safety, as with many problems, is to simply ask people nicely to cooperate. That may work on 90 percent of the drivers on the roads, but it's the other 10 percent that are waking me up in the middle of the night, or running me off of the sidewalk. Stop by your local koban and put a bug in the ear of the police officer there. It just may help!
A few weeks ago Japan went through one of its semi-annual traffic safety campaigns. During these week-long efforts, police officers appear at major intersections and play human traffic light (even though the mechanical ones are working just fine), and little awnings from under which local residents watch over the flow are set up at street corners around town. I cannot help but notice, however, that the people who sit in those little tents seem to do little more than drink tea and munch senbei crackers. The whole exercise seems to have become more of a festival than any serious attempt to get people to drive more safely.
Mind you, Japan has very safe roads overall. The manners of most drivers and their safety records compare quite favorably to those of other advanced nations. What bothers me is not the death toll here, but the other traffic annoyances that could be easily erased if a concerted effort were made.
What am I talking about? High-school boys riding two and three people on a 50cc scooter. Newspaper and soba delivery people on bikes driving down the sidewalk, without any helmets. All sorts of vehicles with illegally modified mufflers blasting 100 or more decibels of sound at all hours of the day and night. Hot-rodders zooming through red lights and down narrow residential streets at up to 70 or 80 kph. Taxi drivers slamming on their brakes in a desperate effort to pick up a customer that has just flagged them, or squealing their tires in a high-speed right turn through an intersection several seconds after their right-turn arrow has vanished. I see (and hear!) violations like these every day in my neighborhood; these are not rare occurrences by any means.
So what can be done? Nothing sophisticated is required, just a good old-fashioned crackdown by police on their white bikes armed with nothing more than their ticket pads. These offenses occur simply because there is no or lax enforcement. Even when giving out parking tickets, Japanese police mark the tires of the offending vehicles with chalk first and give drivers several minutes to move before actually assessing fines.
Forget the chalk! If they immediately wrote tickets, you can bet illegal parking would drop dramatically. The same approach, if applied to moving violations, would no doubt help shrink Japan's roster of traffic accident victims.
This country's approach to traffic safety, as with many problems, is to simply ask people nicely to cooperate. That may work on 90 percent of the drivers on the roads, but it's the other 10 percent that are waking me up in the middle of the night, or running me off of the sidewalk. Stop by your local koban and put a bug in the ear of the police officer there. It just may help!
Shukan ST: May 9, 1997
(C) All rights reserved
- semi-annual traffic safety campaigns
- 年2回行の交通安全運動
- intersections
- 交差点
- play human traffic light
- 人間信号機となって交通整理をする
- mechanical ones
- 機械の信号機
- awnings
- 日よけ
- local residents
- 地元の住民
- watch over 〜
- 〜 を監視する
- flow
- 交通の流れ
- cannot help but 〜
- 〜 せずにはいられない
- do little more than 〜
- 〜 以上のことはしていない
- munch
- むしゃむしゃ食べる
- Mind you
- 心に留めておいて下さい
- compare quite favorably to 〜
- 〜 に比べると大変良い
- advanced nations
- 先進国
- What bothers me is 〜
- 私が気にしているのは 〜 である
- death toll
- 交通事故死者の数
- traffic annoyances
- 交通に関連して不快な思いをさせるもの
- be easily erased
- 簡単になくなる
- if a concerted effort were made
- 協力して努力すれば
- delivery people
- 配達や出前の人
- sidewalk
- 歩道
- All sorts of 〜
- あらゆる種類の 〜
- vehicles
- 車
- illegally-modified mufflers
- 法律に違反して改造された消音器
- blasting
- 鳴り響かせる
- decibels
- デシベル(電力・音などの強度の単位)
- Hot-rodders
- むこうみずなドライバー
- zooming through 〜
- 〜 を突っ切る
- narrow residential streets
- 住宅街の狭い道
- slamming on their brakes
- 急ブレーキを踏む
- in a desperate effort to 〜
- 〜 するために必死で
- (has)flagged them
- タクシーを拾おうと手を上げた
- squealing their tires
- タイヤをきしませる
- right-turn arrow
- 右折の信号
- has vanished
- 消えた
- violations
- 違反
- are not rare occurences by any means
- 決して珍しい出来事ではない
- Nothing sophisticated is required
- 複雑なものは何も必要ではない
- crackdown
- 厳重な取り締まり
- white bikes
- 白バイ
- armed with 〜
- 〜 を持った
- ticket pads
- 交通違反者に切るチケットの束
- offenses
- 違反
- lax
- 手ぬるい
- enforcement
- (法律の)施行
- chalk
- チョーク
- assessing fines
- 罰金を課する
- wrote tickets
- チケットを切る
- you can bet 〜
- 絶対に 〜 になるだろう
- illegal parking
- 駐車違反
- drop dramatically
- 激減する
- if applied to 〜
- 〜 に適用されたならば
- moving violations
- (赤信号無視、速度違反などの)走行中の交通違反
- no doubt
- 必ず
- shrink
- 減らす
- roster
- リスト
- victims
- 犠牲者
- running me off of 〜
- 〜 から飛びのかされる
- Stop by 〜
- 〜 に立ち寄る
- put a bug in the ear of 〜
- 〜 に情報を知らせて警告する