What is the point of the Catclaw?

It’s highly unusual for the subject of road danger to be covered objectively by the mainstream media, which is odd given the alarming frequency at which it claims the lives of children. When a four-year-old girl on a pavement in Liverpool last year was crushed to death in front of her mother by a driver who didn’t want to hold up traffic, the story was covered by local newspapers but did not reach the national news agenda. At best, coverage of road danger is highly selective and almost always divisive. When a lady was killed in London last year when she stepped out in front of a cyclist, the story made front pages, television news and promoted a transport minister to call for a enquiry. The coverage suggested that the primary cause of road danger in Britain today is cyclists.

The absence of a systematic approach to road danger reduction, the victim blaming of vulnerable road users and an absence of any meaningful public debate about hierarchy of road user rights prompted The ETA to launch the idea of the Catclaw – a retractable spike that punctures the tyres of cars that venture onto pavements illegally.

Is this the only way drivers will understand that driving on pavements is dangerous not to mention illegal?

What is the point of the Catclaw?

The Catclaw is an extreme idea that is unlikely to be practicable, or even legal. Other than the sharpened spike hidden within, what, you may well ask, is its point. The purpose of the project is to highlight the plight of the 43 people killed last year on pavements in Britain by drivers and the many thousands of pedestrians every day who have their path blocked. In other words, the Catclaw is a crafty way to discuss the need for road danger reduction with an extremely large audience. For example, only this morning we had the opportunity to speak on BBC Radio Scotland.

The Catclaw served as a Trojan horse that allowed us to talk at some length about the need to radically alter the way we tackle road danger in all its forms. Earlier in the week, the Catclaw inspired, and gave us a voice in, a televised discussion about road danger that involved a serving member of Parliament. Elsewhere in the media, the project has generated coverage in numerous titles including The Daily Mail, The Express, The Mirror, Metro, The Manchester Evening News…not to mention the tens of thousands of Twitter users who engaged with the story and the 85,000 folk on YouTube who watched our film about it.

The systematic approach to road danger reduction Britain so badly needs will not involve Catclaw or anything remotely as outlandish. As as happened in countries such as Sweden, it involves placing people’s needs ahead of cars. The benefits of such an approach are numerous, but include safer roads, reduced healthcare costs, greater independence for children and increased quality of life for all. However, change of this kind can occur only once people – as opposed to politicians – consider it vital. And that process starts with getting it talked about.

The work of The ETA ranges from awareness-raising projects like the Catclaw, to community roadshows promoting sustainable transport, to helping schools mount protests to demand safer road crossings. Supporting these  is easy. Simply buy your home insurance, cycle insurance, travel insurance and breakdown cover  and you will be helping to fund these projects and many more besides. And you can rest assured that by choosing us you will not be compromising on quality or paying over the odds – we’ve been around for over 27 years and are rated as Britain’s most ethical insurance company by The Good Shopping Guide.