Sometimes one sees ideas when on holiday and it makes you wonder why the idea is not more commonplace. An obvious one to me has been count-down displays on Traffic Lights (and/or the Pedestrian Light)
An idea I just saw in Italy was Pre-cast Curb Stones with a tongue and groove a the end so they interlocked. Must make installation easier.
Possibly with the consequence that people will jump the lights in a car before going green and hit the car jumping the lights after red.
Or possibly more difficult when replacing existing curbs or when one gets damaged after a heavy goods vehicle has mounted the curb.
If the timer doesn't faithfully represent the time to green this is certainly a possibility. Otherwise its a brilliant idea and I've never seen a car jumping the lights with these countdowns.
It could even be reinforced so it doesn't break.
these have turned up in central London - for the benefit of tourists, no doubt.
Count down for the pedestrian side have been around here for years. Not a good idea for traffic, given how many jump the lights.
Doncaster has them on some pedestrian crossing.
Just goes to show how lazy the Italians are.
In France they have stretches of motorway (10 to 20kms) where lorries are not allowed to overtake each other. I think the police must take offenders aside and shoot them because you don't get lorries passing at the glacial pace the do here.
Another Dave
There are some dual carriageways here too where lorries are not allowed in the inside lane. Parts of the A42 come to mind.
The 'glacial pace' is hardly the lorry drivers' fault, it's simply down to the speed governor on the lorry.
We (in the UK) seem unable to copy ideas from overseas which are good but happily adopt bad ones ;-(
I recall joking to a German that they would learn that trams were a bad idea and scrap them. I didn't realise Germans lack our sense of humour.
Likewise, every time I see a 'bendy bus' in a French City I am reminded that they are unsuitable for use in cities, which is why Boris got rid of them. (They cope fine with narrow streets etc in France.)
Plus, of course, there is the attitude to alcohol and licensing laws etc. You simply don't see the drunken behaviour we have here elsewhere in Europe, at least unless it is Brits.
And A34 (the bit past Camerons house)
So why overtake in the first place ?
Because sitting behind involves constant adjustment of accelerator or cruise control, but planting their foot and letting the governor sit on the limit while creeping past the lorry in front is 'easier'.
An adaptive cruise control that let them sit behind the truck in front, without any driver input, even if it was +/- 1 or 2 mph of the governor might actually help.
Another Dave wrote in news:pg6at8$85l$1@dont- email.me:
I saw this on the M42 here yesterday - for a few miles on a slight up hill gradient.
So why doesn't the guy on the inside lift his foot for half a minute?
>
Because if he had a brain he wouldn't be a lorry driver?
I'm sure we have count down lights here at some places. The snag is that if a crowd of people come along and are in the middle when it expires.
Not sure about the interlocking curbs as what happens on bends? Brian
I imagine they are mirror image either end so I'd not see that as an issue, though when you get to dropped curbs it kind of ties you in to one supplier of these things.
Given all te tactile rules being different almost everywhere I'd imagine it could be a bit of a nightmare if youwanted to sell internationally. Brian
With regard to crossings. There are now some that interface with an app on a smart phone for the pedestrian to help you find them and alert you of their mode at a given time using blutooth I understand.There are moves afoot to try to agree an international standard. It wold certainly help blind people who no longer would need to either hear the bleeps not knowing if they aare even there or hang on to a little rotating cone under the box. Brian
One weird import that I understand is around in other countries is the 'inlink' street terminal. This magnificent piece of hard ware has an lcd screen mainly used for advertising which is very bright. A charging bay for phones and tablets, an actual telephone but with loudspeaker and touch buttons and often much more. Its started to appear here in Kingston upon thames and has wifi and also often a seat nearby. The term jack of all trades master of none comes to mind . No call is private as it can be heard by the world and his wife and is free subsidised by the adverts. For a town which talks about decluttering the streets this seems an odd move to me.
Brian
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