I appeared last year in an inquest. A motorist had sadly died on a roundabout.
The concern of the Coroner, naturally, was the effect of the road design, traffic lights, signage and sight lines on this motorist and the effect they may have had on his death.

And yet....

There are others who use or are affected by roundabouts. Pedestrians, cyclists and motorcyclists. Each have different needs. Each are exposed to different risks. Each may be affected by small changes to the design, the signs, the sight lines.

Those changes may lead to fewer crashes and fatalities for one group, yet increase the risks for others. Each requires careful consideration, and *balancing* those benefits with those risks.

At the end of this Inquest, I told the Coroner that she was particularly ill placed to judge whether those decisions, those designs, those changes were right or were wrong.

She could only look at this tragic accident from one perspective; through one telescope. She was not in a position to judge their efficacy from the perspective of all road users: pedestrians as well as cyclists; motorists as well as motorcyclists.

There is a parable here, somewhere.