[sustran] BBC NEWS: Calls for 'speed-limiting' cars

[chuwa]

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/7803997.stm
Probably it is time to look into this potential- car can be auto-speed-limited. I know that can take away some fun in driving (e.g. no more night race in the city), but if it discourage those who are driving for fun, I think it is a good thing for the rest.-----------------------------------------------BBC News, Jan 3, 2009Speed-limiting devices should be fitted to cars on a voluntary basis to help save lives and cut carbon emissions, according to a new report.The government's transport advisers claim the technology would cut road accidents with injuries by 29%.The device automatically slows a car down to within the limit for the road on which it is being driven.But campaign group Safe Speed warns against its use, saying it encourages drivers to enter a "zombie mode".Ministers are planning to help councils draw up digital maps with details of the legal speed on every road.The speed-limiting devices will then use satellite positioning to check a vehicle's
 location and when its speed exceeds the limit, power will be reduced and the brakes applied if necessary.The Commission for Integrated Transport and the Motorists' Forum, which both advise the government, are calling on ministers to promote a wide introduction of the system.Education 'important'John Lewis, from the Motorists' Forum, told BBC Breakfast he believed the devices would help drivers obey limits and therefore keep their licences."But we believe that the system should be a voluntary system, that the drivers decide if they have fitted to their car or not, and that they decide if they want to over-ride the speed limit - that should be their choice," he said.There would also be a positive impact on emissions and fuel consumption, he added.
Jon York, fleet manager for British Gas, whose vans are already limited to 70mph, told BBC Radio 5 Live the system had reduced road incidents for the company.But he said the introduction of technology had to be combined with safety education."It does aid road safety, it does reduce incidents, but it is part of a wide-ranging number of initiatives within British Gas and one of those is driver training because you have to change people's behaviour."Overtaking worriesBut Claire Armstrong, from the road safety campaign group Safe Speed, said that the devices could be dangerous.She said truck drivers using speed-limiting devices had been shown to "go into fatigue mode or zombie mode" and stopped paying attention to the road."That makes it highly dangerous in those scenarios. So you've taken the responsibility away from the driver and that is not [good] for road safety."Derek Charters, from the Motor Industry Research Association, has extensively tested
 speed-limiting technology.He believes that if all cars were fitted with the system, safety would be improved, and that vehicles without it present a greater danger."The last thing you need is one car to be overtaking and then pull back in, in front of the cars in front, because that braking event will then cause everybody to start to slow down, which will then compress the traffic, which then causes an incident," he said.Motoring journalist Quentin Willson said he also believed taking away driver control was a "really, really bad thing"."Remotely policing the roads from satellites in the sky - I would worry about it an awful lot." 


--- On Sat, 11/15/08, chuwa <chuwasg at yahoo.com> wrote:

From: chuwa <chuwasg at yahoo.com>
Subject: Re: [sustran] Shocker: Speed Limits Are Useless
To: eric.britton at ecoplan.org
Date: Saturday, November 15, 2008, 3:40 PM

Wouldn't it be nice if all future cars come with two-mode: 

1) city-mode that can not exceed 30kph (or whatever the city decided)
2) highway mode that unlock the speed limit

This can easily be done with existing technology, cars can be electronically "enable" to highway mode at the entrance of the highway. Such control device can also be fitted to existing cars as after market installation.

What is needed is to have the law changed so that it is illegal to sell/drive cars without an automatic "city mode". 


Chu Wa
A Commuter cyclist from Singapore




--- On Sat, 11/15/08, Eric Britton <eric.britton at ecoplan.org> wrote:

> From: Eric Britton <eric.britton at ecoplan.org>
> Subject: [sustran] Shocker: Speed Limits Are Useless
> To: NewMobilityCafe at yahoogroups.com
> Cc: sustran-discuss at list.jca.apc.org
> Date: Saturday, November 15, 2008, 2:31 AM
> At the end of the day, policy in this area has to be driven
> by common sense
> and a firm knowledge of behavioral psychology and culture.
> Reinforced of
> course by the crown jewels of traffic engineering and
> street design. 
> 
>  
> 
> Here is my 1 2 3 take of the foundation points on this
> important issue:
> 
>  
> 
> 1.     Cars make us drivers impatient. We are also
> insulated by our steel
> capsule, line of vision, internal noise controls, and thus
> divorced from the
> real world. That is part of what cars are all about (you
> just have to look
> at the ads), speeding us along like a magic carpet from
> place to where we
> want to go.
> 
> 
> 
> 2.     Thus, 9 people out of 10 - me included sorry to say-
> are going to
> drive pretty much as fast as they think circumstances will
> "reasonably"
> permit.  And this is, much of the time at least, simply too
> fast in a city
> situation.
> 
> 
> 
> 3.     There are parts of the world, not many sadly, where
> there is a 'slow
> car culture', which specifically can take the form of
> smilingly yielding
> priority to pedestrians, cyclists and even other cars and
> public transit
> vehicles. I know that I for one do that just about all the
> time - but the
> demon of speed is still there itching in my psyche and
> ready to roar out
> when the circumstances permit.
> 
> 
> 
> 4.     Thus, culture helps, but it's not that of the
> majority - so we can
> hardly count on that
> 
> 
> 
> 5.     And fear of retribution helps too - but many divers
> tend to "work
> with that" in various ways. Not all of them
> necessarily nasty per se, but
> the result is very simple: they take their chances and
> speed mains and
> kills, no matter how pure our thoughts may be.
> 
> 
> 
> 6.     And yes Martin Cassini, ill-placed traffic signals
> do indeed often
> make things worse. Drivers will play them, and knowing the
> cycle will speed
> up beyond the limit in order to make it through just in
> time (or a bit later
> but what the hell, eh?).
> 
> 
> 
> 7.     Posted speed limits: Just part of the environment.
> For most people
> they are not credible, or reasonable. A vague part of the
> landscape. So they
> are an eventual reference point but not a heavily
> determinant one.
> 
>  
> 
> Now that we have seen what an evil person I am - I am the
> Joe Average at the
> wheel - the next question is what do we do to deal with me.
> 
>  
> 
> Here is what I propose, building on some of the points
> suggested here in the
> last two days, but also on the very large body of work and
> information that
> is underway on this for decades, going back to Donald
> Appleyard's Livable
> Streets and Jane Jacob's Death and Life, and winding
> all the way through the
> good work that has been done by many people and places,
> with a nod for sure
> to our greatly regretted Hans Monderman. 
> 
>  
> 
> 1.     So we know, people, most people at least, are going
> to drive as fast
> as they can, if they can. Even on a city street. Or at the
> very least, too
> fast to be safe in a world of darting children, wobbling
> cyclists, old
> people in dark coats, and that other driver how is also
> going too fast. 
> 
> 
> 
> 2.     So we have to restrain them physically and
> psychically - and the only
> restraint that works is street architecture. We work by
> shortening the
> straight lines, narrowing the road way, alternating
> surfaces, popping in
> uncomfortable speed bumps, and using lights and visual,
> aura and tactile
> signals and  tricks to force slowing down.
> 
> 
> 
> 3.     IT also helps greatly to have large numbers s of
> pedestrians,
> cyclists and playing children and chatting adults out onto
> the street, so
> that it comes clear to all that this is a shared space for
> all. In French we
> call it 'occuper le terrain", possibly "make
> it ours". 
> 
> 
> 
> 4.     Truly English friends, the mindless propagation of
> intrusive tracking
> technology to handle every 21st century problem that
> emerges involving
> people is not an advance toward a more civilized world. 
> Just because we can
> do it, should not be taken to mean that we should.
> 
> 
> 
> 5.     But traffic police, laws and courts who strike hard
> on miscreant,
> parked and others are certainly part of the solution set. 
> 
>  
> 
> There you have my rough and ready speed control toolkit. I
> have observed and
> worked with these issues for a long time, and I can't
> get any brighter on
> this than what you have here. 
> 
>  
> 
> Eric Britton
> 
>  
> 
> PS I still love Robert Stussi's wonderful little Homage
> to Hans Monderman
> clip, at 90 seconds and you'll see it on the internal
> left menu at
> http://www.media.newmobility.org. And as the terrific man
> on the street
> being interviewed put it: "And statistically we can
> prove it, dear sir". We
> sure can. 
> 
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