The use of flags in road safety campaigns goes back a long way, to 1865, in fact.
The Locomotives Act of that year required that the steam-propelled cars of the time had henceforth to be preceded in public by a signalman carrying a red flag, with an upper speed limit of 4 m.p.h. (for the car, that is - the signalman could go as fast as he liked).
So the "Fly the Flag" campaign announced this week by the National Safety Council has tradition on its side. But in terms of its stated aim of reducing the number of road accidents over the October bank holiday weekend, it might be more effective if we all just prayed.
In case you missed its launch during the week, the campaign will involve a participating driver displaying a "white flag" sticker on his or her vehicle. This will constitute a contract by which that person pledges, among other things (1) I will not drink and drive (2) I will drive at a proper speed (3) I will wear my seatbelt.
Visitors to Ireland will have noticed that a similar scheme already exists here, involving a white sticker with a red letter "L" on it. This means, among other things (1) I don't have a full licence (2) keep a safe distance (3) because God knows what I'm going to do next.
Visitors may be forgiven for thinking that this scheme is extremely popular, accounting as it does for about one in four of all road-users.
The "Fly the Flag" campaign could become equally popular, but it does contain one big flaw as road safety measures go. Namely, if you're the sort of person prepared to put one of these flags on your vehicle in the first place, chances are you're not part of the problem.
When it unveiled the plan last Monday, the NSC indicated coyly that it hoped to focus on the 20-35 age group; and, although it was too polite to say so, you knew it had one gender in mind. This group will not be prominent among the white flag-wavers, I predict; or if it is, it won't change anything.
Anyone who has ever been a 20- to 35-year-old male will know that, however responsible such a person may be, his driving is influenced by the deep-seated belief that if another driver of the same age and gender overtakes, cuts in on, or otherwise gets the better of him on the public road, it means that he (the other driver) is more likely to mate successfully.
If you've never been a 20- to 35-year-old male, you may think this is an exaggeration. If you've ever been married to one, you'll know it's not. In fact, if the NSC abandoned the white flag scheme and issued skull-and-crossbones stickers to all young male drivers instead, it might be getting somewhere.
There would probably be a bigger take-up, and non-combatants on the road would at least be warned.
As traffic-calming devices go, the white flags are likely to be about as successful as the existing car stickers that read "Baby on board" or "Don't drive too close - I'm a blood donor." Maybe these do have an effect. But how often have you seen one of them and thought: Oops, thank God I found out in time. I'll just crash into that other car (the one with the Manchester United sticker) instead. Not often, I'm guessing.
They may serve a more general purpose, arguably: indicating that the driver is a responsible and valuable member of society, and so should you be. And maybe that's the thinking behind the white flags, too. As a practical device to encourage road safety, however, I'm afraid it has about as much future as the signalman.