DOI fails again

[Banker]

Don’t worry a new board is going to oversee bus vannin as part of restructuring 

https://gef.im/2023/05/10/all-aboard-the-new-board/

[BriT]

56 minutes ago, Omobono said:

as if we didn't have enough crap to contend with on the roads ,Manx radio announced  this morning that the DOI are going to allow Electric scooters to be used , this is after many European countries   including the city of Paris have recently banned them because of the dangers to pedestrians and other road users , 

It will be because some sad case somewhere now sees a £5M plus 3 year project creating commuter electric scooter lanes to run alongside the empty cycle lanes so that 10 people can be accommodated at enormous cost to the taxpayer. The whole of Douglas could be re-engineered at great cost to accommodate these ‘active travelers’ and someone at the DOI would get a massive hardon about that. 

[Mysteron]

1 hour ago, Banker said:

Don’t worry a new board is going to oversee bus vannin as part of restructuring 

https://gef.im/2023/05/10/all-aboard-the-new-board/

Here's the new Board, who have a proven track record of excellence, integrity and accountability.

What could possibly go wrong?

[WTF]

16 minutes ago, Mysteron said:

Here's the new Board, who have a proven track record of excellence, integrity and accountability.

What could possibly go wrong?

i recognise the steam packet boss , who are the rest ?

[The Phantom]

Anyone else pick this up?

https://www.manxradio.com/news/isle-of-man-news/first-time-buyer-properties-in-castletown-jump-by-18k/

Seems the DOI are somehow responsible for first time buyers houses and are cranking up the prices by over 10% and giving those lucky individuals only a couple of weeks to get a completely re-negotiated mortgage. 

[Non-Believer]

55 minutes ago, WTF said:

i recognise the steam packet boss , who are the rest ?

Looks like the old team, is that Longworth in the middle?

[The Bastard]

3 hours ago, Omobono said:

with all the problems they are inflicting on the motoring public , here is another  woke form of transport ,  that I doubt will ever be properly controlled  ,and no doubt its use will be abused  and someone will get hurt or even worse , 

Oh no ! People could get hurt from motorised vehicles ! Ban them all immediately ! Just imagine if this trial extended to a huge metal vehicle weighing tonnes, that could easily run over and kill pedestrians and children, and smash into things at high speed ! That must clearly never happen !

[Stu Peters]

11 minutes ago, The Bastard said:

Oh no ! People could get hurt from motorised vehicles ! Ban them all immediately ! Just imagine if this trial extended to a huge metal vehicle weighing tonnes, that could easily run over and kill pedestrians and children, and smash into things at high speed ! That must clearly never happen !

The difference being that motor vehicles are tested, taxed, insured and their drivers are also trained and tested. Simon Scrote on his electric scooter is none of those things and is effectively a law unto himself.

[Passing Time]

1 minute ago, Stu Peters said:

The difference being that motor vehicles are tested, taxed, insured and their drivers are also trained and tested. Simon Scrote on his electric scooter is none of those things and is effectively lawless

corrected for accuracy

[Mercenary]

3 hours ago, Banker said:

Don’t worry a new board is going to oversee bus vannin as part of restructuring 

https://gef.im/2023/05/10/all-aboard-the-new-board/

I think boards could be a good thing for areas of DOI (whether buses would be the first to bring forward I'm not so sure) - bringing clear roles/responsibilities, performance management and scrutiny to the running of these areas could be beneficial. If well ran areas should be less subject to the whims of an individual politico / officer.

 

However - the term 'shadow board' sounds like it could bring the opposite. What is their actual role and what accountability do they have? Is it purely advisory or do they have any teeth? 

[The Bastard]

35 minutes ago, Stu Peters said:

The difference being that motor vehicles are tested, taxed, insured and their drivers are also trained and tested. Simon Scrote on his electric scooter is none of those things and is effectively a law unto himself.

You'll note my argument with Omebono's post has nothing to do with tax and insurance, It's with their selective vision of the mass fatalities associated with their preferred mode of transport, whilst decrying another (safer) mode of transport for its perceived lack of safety. That's all. 

As usual, your counter-argument is centred around your motoring hobby that you seemingly can't see past whenever you discuss policy. Untaxed and uninsured personal mobility already happens with bicycles, including electric cycles that aren't that much different from scooters. It hasn't turned into a lawless free-for-all on the IOM with roaming gangs of anarchist e-cyclists causing hundreds of deaths.

Accidents will happen, as they do with skateboards, bicycles, non-powered scooters and rollerskates, but let me remind you that in the UK last year, there were more than 1,700 fatalities from (sometimes) taxed and insured vehicles being driven by (supposedly) trained drivers.

Elderly swingers trying to recapture their youth by thrashing round the TT course in their rusty old classics are not the target market here, but for younger people, they offer a seriously viable way to get around at minimal expense. They're not competing with grandad's old pothole-generating smoke-belcher, they're cheap, last-mile urban transport. They're for urban peeps heading into work or the shops, maybe heading to the bus stop, getting off the bus and scooting the last mile instead of driving in, or asking mum & dad to drive them. Just like bicycles, riders might be people who can't drive, aren't old enough, or no longer have the medical fitness. They don't need huge concrete carparks or expensive traffic calming schemes.

Cheap transport without tax and insurance is actually a benefit to the community, not a burden. A £300 uninsured, untaxed e-scooter replacing a £2k e-bike or £25K car is a good thing, particularly when you think about long-term cost both to the individual and IOM society. Enabling the people of the IOM to do easy last-mile transport without paying huge amounts of tax and insurance, and without huge amounts of accompanying local pollution and expensive infrastructure is also a good thing. 

[Stu Peters]

54 minutes ago, The Bastard said:

You'll note my argument with Omebono's post has nothing to do with tax and insurance, It's with their selective vision of the mass fatalities associated with their preferred mode of transport, whilst decrying another (safer) mode of transport for its perceived lack of safety. That's all. 

As usual, your counter-argument is centred around your motoring hobby that you seemingly can't see past whenever you discuss policy. Untaxed and uninsured personal mobility already happens with bicycles, including electric cycles that aren't that much different from scooters. It hasn't turned into a lawless free-for-all on the IOM with roaming gangs of anarchist e-cyclists causing hundreds of deaths.

Accidents will happen, as they do with skateboards, bicycles, non-powered scooters and rollerskates, but let me remind you that in the UK last year, there were more than 1,700 fatalities from (sometimes) taxed and insured vehicles being driven by (supposedly) trained drivers.

Elderly swingers trying to recapture their youth by thrashing round the TT course in their rusty old classics are not the target market here, but for younger people, they offer a seriously viable way to get around at minimal expense. They're not competing with grandad's old pothole-generating smoke-belcher, they're cheap, last-mile urban transport. They're for urban peeps heading into work or the shops, maybe heading to the bus stop, getting off the bus and scooting the last mile instead of driving in, or asking mum & dad to drive them. Just like bicycles, riders might be people who can't drive, aren't old enough, or no longer have the medical fitness. They don't need huge concrete carparks or expensive traffic calming schemes.

Cheap transport without tax and insurance is actually a benefit to the community, not a burden. A £300 uninsured, untaxed e-scooter replacing a £2k e-bike or £25K car is a good thing, particularly when you think about long-term cost both to the individual and IOM society. Enabling the people of the IOM to do easy last-mile transport without paying huge amounts of tax and insurance, and without huge amounts of accompanying local pollution and expensive infrastructure is also a good thing. 

Rain and cold, shopping. Beat those challenges and your utopian vision might have half a chance. My point about licencing and insurance keeps most drunks off the road, but I bet there are a few e-bike and e-scoot owners downing a few before going home. And point of order: there's nothing wrong with elderly swingers.

[The Old Git]

4 minutes ago, Stu Peters said:

Rain and cold, shopping. Beat those challenges and your utopian vision might have half a chance. My point about licencing and insurance keeps most drunks off the road, but I bet there are a few e-bike and e-scoot owners downing a few before going home. And point of order: there's nothing wrong with elderly swingers.

Clothes and panniers and or rucksack. 

 

ETA Half expecting the usual Twitter "but that about a fridge or settee reply".

Edited May 10, 2023 by The Old Git

[Declan]

35 minutes ago, Stu Peters said:

Rain and cold, shopping. Beat those challenges and your utopian vision might have half a chance. 

Irrelevant to a stupid degree. 

Nobody is suggesting that escooters or pushbikes should replace cars in all circumstances. The suggestion is to use alternative modes of transport on some journeys when people choose.

If it does catch on it also benefits people like you because on some days (probably no cold rainy ones) there will fewer cars for you to get stuck behind and more parking spaces and you can imagine that it's still the 1970's.   

[The Bastard]

16 minutes ago, Stu Peters said:

Rain and cold, shopping. Beat those challenges and your utopian vision might have half a chance. My point about licencing and insurance keeps most drunks off the road, but I bet there are a few e-bike and e-scoot owners downing a few before going home. And point of order: there's nothing wrong with elderly swingers.

Rain and cold = the Isle of Man summarised in two words. People are in entirely the wrong place if that's not what they're prepared to adapt to.

Beating those challenges : wear a jacket, put your shopping in your backpack.

They'd be useless for transporting paving stones from B&Q, but that's not their niche. For that last mile from home to work, or from the bus stop to work/school they do the job. 

Drunks - The papers are full of drunk drivers, only some of which actually turn out to be licensed and insured, but what makes the difference is enforcement, arresting the pissed-up biffs. Quoting John Wright here "s13 RTA 1985 makes it an offence to ride, or be drunk in charge of, a push bike". 

Point of order : acknowledged.