Kg v pound

[Tim Lamb]

Snip

Quite!

House price inflation has a secondary unwelcome impact.

Our first 3 bed semi-det. cottage cost £5000 in 1970. Affordable mortgage for a primary school teacher and an engineer.

After 5 years we needed to move because prices were moving faster than any increase in allowed borrowing.

The second house, 3 bed detached cost £23,000 in 1975.

The third house, I've forgotten how much, could only be afforded by family borrowing and was only slightly larger.

Had we not moved when we did, our children and a single salary would have trapped us in house number one.

Some friends sold a house in Hemel Hempstead, used the money to buy a mansion in France. After several years they moved back but could then only afford to buy property in Scotland!

[The Natural Philosopher]

Computer communication theory has the answer

Traffic lights are time division multiplexing. Long shown to be inferior to packet switching multiplexing, with collision detection and random backoff for shared media.

In short you stick a piece of kit at the junction and it issues a token. Once the vehicle has cleared the junction the token is handed back. There is only one token for each shared piece of road space.

The first car to arrive could be handed the token preferentially, or the car not making a turn at all could get first dibs.

It is essentially a software analogue of the highway code 'wait until the road is clear before making a turn'

I see no reason why it wouldn't be more safe than a human.,

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[Fredxx]

Not when it comes to transport. It is said the taxes and duties running a car are equivalent to basic rate tax. The exception being in London you generally don't need a car, and can access subsidised cheap public transport that runs to 5am.

[Tim Lamb]

I was slightly impressed with the equal junction arrangement found in Guernsey some years ago.

Traffic simply alternates. Perhaps not so easy with our traffic density.

I was actually *leg lifting* rather than seeking solutions:-)

Technology will always leave behind some who chose to not progress although I guess not many are still watching TV in B and W!

There was a brief unexpected power outage here yesterday. This morning we have Openreach and Thames Water fiddling with their sewage pumping station monitoring cable. It crossed my mind that many remote operable digital controls might be vulnerable to unforeseen power downs.

[Tim Lamb]

Yes. Not hugely safe now.

My example assumed one vehicle fully automated and the other built say 5 years ago.

Is a fully automated highway network feasible/affordable simply to allow you to watch TV/sleep while you travel to Scotland?

[Max Demian]

I'm not sure pharmacies stock leeches for prescription.

You want euthanasia?

[Dave Plowman (News]

Swot. ;-)

[JNugent]

On the subject of London and its much-vaunted public transport, I wonder whether there are any figures for the annual number of assaults, robberies, woundings, rapes and murders, whether actually on LT vehicles or within or near to the places* one must venture on foot to be able to use them?

Many people would be thinking "I can tell you the number of those things that happened in my car last year...".

[* Railway stations, Underground stations, bus termini, bus-stops]

[Brian D]

If you look at inflation ove the years that's when it started its upwards slope.

[zaq]

Yes, or when commuting to work.

[The Natural Philosopher]

I think its technically feassible. But economically and politically a decade off or more. We will probably have cars that will do that on motorways, then A roads...and then who knows?

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