Welcome to the Road Users' Alliance website.
Launched on 17 September 2002, the Road Users' Alliance seeks to represent all UK road users from motorists to horse riders, from cyclists to road hauliers, from pedestrians to utility companies.
RUA supports the concept of an integrated transport system but investment in the road network and long term planning is needed to ensure its success........
www.rua.org.uk/
--
New group to fight for drivers' rights
The Road Users' Alliance (RUA) has been launched this week by the Refined Bitumen Association and RAC Foundation
www.money.telegraph.co.uk/motoring/main.jhtml?xml=...l
--
FOE PRESS RELEASE
NEW 'ROAD USERS' GROUP: ANOTHER CAMPAIGN FOR MORE ROADS
17 Sep 2002
Claims by a new road users organisation to "provide a voice for all road users" have been dismissed as absurd by leading transport and environment groups. The Road Users Alliance, which was launched today, will "highlight the importance of roads".
The Road Users’ Alliance (RUA) claims it will "provide a voice for all road-users – from motorists to horse-riders, cyclists to road hauliers, utility companies to pedestrians". However, it has been set up "to highlight the importance of roads and sustained investment, to resolve our transport problems". Its first publication states that membership is "open to…organisations committed to building, equipping and maintaining roads".
Friends of the Earth’s Transport Campaigner, Tony Bosworth, said:
"No-one will believe that this thinly-disguised campaign for more roads can really represent the interests of pedestrians, cyclists and horse-riders. The Road Users’ Alliance thinks building roads is the solution to Britain’s transport problems. It’s the same old message that we have heard for decades. That policy failed in the past; it will fail in the future as well".
Kevin Mayne, Director of CTC, the national cyclists organisation, said:
"Given that the road lobby has fought tooth and nail to deflect responsibility for road safety and oppose measures to reduce car dependency, it seems highly improbable that it will suddenly be sufficiently concerned to speak for other road users now".
Philip Connolly of pedestrians’ campaign group Living Streets said:
"The Road Users Alliance is likely to entrench an already unequal and unjust situation. It is not just road users who need to be involved in discussions about the amount of road space available or the environmental impact of transport but the residents of the communities that the traffic passes through or those people or organisations that would benefit from releasing road space for other activities whether for children's play, street markets or for new developments."
www.foe.co.uk/pubsinfo/infoteam/pressrel/2002/2002...l
|
Doing 5 minutes of sniffing, a whois gives:-
Domain Name: RUA.ORG.UK
Registered For: HMPR
Domain Registered By: GTWIZ
Registered on 18-Jul-2002.
Record last updated on 06-Aug-2002 by .
Stuffing HMPR into google comes up with:-
AIA press office contacts are: David Armstrong/Peter Symonds 14a Eccleston Street London SW1W 9LT Tel.020 7730 1100 HMPR email: asphalt@hmpr.co.uk. ... www.asphaltindustryalliance.com/mediaser.htm
and going to that web site shows (what we expected??)
"The Asphalt Industry Alliance (AIA) provides expert information and advice about the asphalt industry, roads and the benefits of asphalt. Quick to react to enquiries from the media and private individuals, AIA services include:"
So they're not biased then ;>)
|
Alternatively you could save yourself 4 minutes and just download the info on the website.
What did you expect: that they were a sister outfit to Transport 2000 funded by the bus and rail companies?
Or perhaps double agents really working for an amalgamation of FoE, SSI, and the like?
|
Well no, but it does suggest that "FoE, SSI and the like" are right to be sceptical, and right (bearing in mind their own remit) to withold their support. This is very similar to the Countryside Alliance, which is apparently supportive of the rural economy, but is actually more concerned with fox hunting. (Like many life-long countryside dwellers I agree with the first aim, and am bitterly opposed to the other, so I cannot support the CA). So despite the RUA's claim to be on the side of cyclists and pedestrians, I'm going to have to give them a miss, too. Do the organisers of these groups think people are stupid?
Chris
|
So it's the road builders alliance then!
|
|
Well no, but it does suggest that "FoE, SSI and the like" are right to be sceptical,
Well, they might be right.
And they might have a right to be sceptical if they had already showed comparable scepticism vis a vis Transport 2000 (funded by the the "public" bus and train companies) and "prof" Begg (funded by, errrmmmmmm, "public" bus and train companies).
|
I lost track of this last time............did we discover where the 'Prof' in Begg came from?
|
I lost track of this last time............did we discover where the 'Prof' in Begg came from?
Nope.
But if anyone tries searching the web: he's not the Prof Begg who's been to Oxford, Cambridge, Harvard, Yale, and half a dozen other places no doubt, and is a government adviser.
In economics to the Treasury.
He's the one who used to be the "Chair" of "Transport" on Edinburgh Council.
And now is the "Professor" of some transport institute at some former college in Scotland.
|
|
|
|
|
|
Motoring Lobby Group Targets Fleets For Future Role
FLEETS are to play a major role in shaping the future of a new lobbying body set up to become the 'voice of the motorist'.
The Road Users' Alliance was launched in London last week and currently has the backing of the RAC Foundation and Refined Bitumen Association but it is actively sourcing new members from a wide variety of areas connected to road use.
On the subject of congestion charging, the RUA said it was 'an inevitable and acceptable method of managing demand' but only if the revenue generated is used to 'improve the overall capacity and quality of the road service and its alternatives'.
From:
www.fleetnewsnet.co.uk/newshome/home_fullarticle/?...1
Remind me:
Is the RAC the one that is owned by a company that supplies the government with its fleets and has a "liberal" transport spokesman on PR duty?
Or is it the one that is the old gas board?
|
|