ed_m wrote:
Mole wrote:
I think a cheaper way of doing it would be with GPS. Just programme the restricted area into each car's GPS receiver and as soon as it is inside that area, it could be made to slow down. Whether or not anyone would BUY a car like that is another matter entirely.
GPS.... in narrow residential streets surrounded by houses & perchance even trees.... eeek.
Shouldn't be a problem. The system only needs to know if you're "inside" the restricted zone or "outside" it. There's no need to know whereabouts you are with any more precision than that. IF it knows you've entered the zone and then looses the signal, it won't de-restrict your car, it will just wait until it sees your car outside the zone again and then de-restrict it. The same technology is being developed for low emissions zones and hybrid buses. As soon as the bus enters the low emissions zone, the GPS kills the engine and switches to electric power. When it leaves, it starts up the main engine again.
(Still think Mpaton's idea sucks though)!
And where does the "less congestion" idea come from?!?!? Traffic is like a fluid and should obey Bernoulli's rules - when it gets to a restriction, it should go FASTER to get the same "volume flow rate". Now clearly, there is a safety trade-off here and I can understand that safety is important, but it should be pretty obvious to anyone that slowing everything down is NOT (in itself) going to speed anything up!
PLEASE Mr. Paton try lobbying for pedestrian friendly cars, for better driver AND PEDESTRIAN education, for internationally recognised standards of grip for tyres, for better testing of suspension components (dampers principally), for better road design....
Why does the answer to everything always have to be "let's force everyone to drive slower and really piss them off"?
We've had TEN YEARS of increasingly draconian speed enforcement and the problem has got WORSE! Going back further than that, road casualties DROPPED the year after the Red Flag Act was repealed! WE'VE 100 YEARS OF EXPERIENCE HERE!!!!!