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This horrific succession of traffic deaths is a call to action. But what kind of action?

We are already doing, or promising that we will do, most of the right things.

We need to get more travellers off bikes and cars and into buses and ferries.

And we need to get drivers (including bus and ferry drivers) to drive slower and drive sober.

What's needed, therefore, is not a load of brilliant new ideas but the energy and courage to follow through on things we already know we're supposed to be doing.

The most difficult and expensive task is to get people to use public transportation. That means continuing to follow through on Government's 2002 Transportation Management Plan, despite the costs, setbacks and lack of instant results.

Fundamental first steps have already been implemented, with a dramatically expanded and accelerated ferry service. But that's not good enough. An 18-minute ferry ride doesn't seem so brilliant when you factor in time spent hoofing it from the dock to your home or your workplace, or the inconvenience of service cancelled because of weather, breakdowns or union meetings. We need greater frequency, longer hours, additional stops, and greater reliability if we are going to lure substantial numbers of people off the roads.

Bermuda's bus service has also improved, with better schedules and the introduction of private mini-buses and public "connector" buses. This needs to be expanded too. Government claims nobody in Bermuda lives more than 10 minutes from a bus stop - but 10 minutes is too long when it's raining or you're running late for work.

Eliminating fares on buses and ferries will be another important step forward. Most people can afford to pay - and riding the bus is already cheaper than operating a car. But free public transport makes it the choice the ultimate no-brainer. We must follow through.

We also have a duty to enforce our speed limit, or something approximating it.

High speed driving habits will continue until speeders know their chances of getting caught and punished are high. We can't afford the number of police needed to do that job: The only practical solution is large numbers of automatic speed cameras.

It is something the Government has said it will do. We need to work harder and quicker to deal with the practical and legal obstacles and get on with it.

A similar situation exists with drunk driving: Enforcement is so haphazard that most drinkers don't worry too much about being caught. Until that changes, drinking and driving in Bermuda will remain commonplace. The only "public education" campaign that really works is getting caught.

In all these areas we are moving in the right direction - just not nearly fast or thoroughly enough.

But there are a couple of other areas where Bermuda is moving the wrong way, and Government needs to take action. It seems than half of all drivers nowadays are yapping on their cellphones. It's dangerous and everybody knows it. It should be banned, and the ban should be enforced.

And Government needs to reverse the trend towards larger cars and trucks. The crowded roads, reduced visibility, make it much riskier to ride bikes or walk along the side of a road. And a larger vehicle quite literally has less wiggle room before it hits someone.

These are obvious things to do. Whether any one of them would have saved any of the lives lost so far this year cannot be easily answered. But every person killed was special too, and we did not want to lose them.[[In-content Ad]]

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