THE words of great philosophers, including Jean-Paul Sartre, Einstein and Gandhi, are to be used by tube drivers in London to communicate with passengers.

Drivers stuck in jams at Poole may also come out with some choice phrases on hearing that the town has been listed as the sixth most car-friendly in the country.

Coincidentally, this month a modern provocative thinker, Mr Jeremy Clarkson, took a pop at Bournemouth over the time it took to get from one side of the town to the other.

So is Poole more car-friendly than Bournemouth? I doubt it. It has its share of speed cameras; petrol costs are much the same; it will cost you to park in the centre even if you are only stopping to buy one measly item; the newly installed traffic lights at Ashley Cross seem to have created fresh problems according to traders; and ever-more restrictions are forcing traffic to use only the main roads.

A bigger question, perhaps, would be: is Poole pedestrian-friendly? Not when it comes to town planning, I fear. In Poole, as elsewhere, the car is king.

Which is why it seems odd that, despite all the messing about to keep traffic moving, you still get caught in queues so often in places like Ashley Road and Station Road.

“Hell is other people,” said Sartre. It’s not. It’s a traffic jam when you’re in a hurry.

Perhaps it was being stuck in a jam that inspired that other famous old quotation: “Whither shall I wander?” Was it one of Gandhi’s?

Or someone with a similar name?