OT: What car is this?

[Harry Bloomfield]

Andy Burns laid this down on his screen :

Oh, thanks I had never seen one before on a door. Guess the occupants were worried about something flammable being put through a letter box then?

[newshound]

Depends on the plan. There are more barriers against larger vehicles in sensitive places. Chelsea Tractor is a "good" choice for mowing down pedestrians, modern cars being more likely to deflect bodies up and over or to the side. And maybe new hirers of van/lorry trip an alarm these days.

[Capitol]

Yes, and doesn't open on Sundays!

[Graham.]

Specsavers >>>>

[Nightjar]

There are substantial barriers close to the Palace of Westminster, but none further away. I suspect that they will start to appear on the approaches as well.

Modern cars are designed to minimise injury to pedestrians. Lorries are more likely to cause very serious injuries or death.

I would think that a lack of the necessary driving licence would be a barrier to many of the younger extremists hiring one. However, that still leaves stolen or hijacked as options.

[dennis]

If that really were true there wouldn't be these "4x4" style cars about. The high fronts are not good for pedestrians, especially children. Roo bars make it even worse.

I think there is a need for spike strips across pavements. They would need to be protected by a foam rubber/spring of some kind so that pedestrians didn't get spiked but cars did.

Maybe fit hinged edges to kerbs so that they grab the tyres and deflate them.

They wouldn't get far on four flats. It would stop the pavement parkers too.

[damduck-egg]

FFS, roads and pavements are often in poor condition now with lack of maintenance and you suggest stupid, fantasy, impractical ideas like that.

If someone is intent on barging onto a pavement to cause death and destruction then for the distances involved flat tyres are not going to stop them they are hardly worried about accuracy of steering or getting thier deposit back from a hire company.

G.Harman

[Nightjar]

A low front is more likely to cause head injuries, which are the main cause of death, when the pedestrian is rotated onto the front of the car, often striking their head on the windscreen surround. There are drawbacks to any design, but all modern car are far more pedestrian friendly than they used to be. The emphasis now is on developing systems that detect a potential pedestrian impact and slowing or stopping the car before it happens.

It is now illegal to fit new bull bars that do not comply with European safety standards.

If you look at the protection near to the Palace of Westminster, the pavement is separated from the road by solid barriers, with long barriers along the pavements themselves, which allow pedestrians to pass between them, but are too close for a car. The barriers need to be substantial, in order to stop a lorry.

Containment kerbs can also safely prevent vehicles, even large ones, from mounting the pavement:

[dennis]

I think you will find most of them are caused by the pedestrian hitting the ground and not the car pillars. My car has a collapsible bonnet so that the pedestrian's energy is absorbed a bit better than landing on the road and then being run over. The main thing is I must remember not to brake hard and throw them off if I manage to get one.

Driverless cars with no manual override except stop?

Shame it only protects the palace and not the approach roads. It would be extremely costly to try and protect much more using that approach.

They would have to be very tall to stop a deliberate attempt to mount them. Probably 300 mm or more for a family car and a lot more for a truck. They assume that the driver isn't opposing the force that turns the vehicle away and the wheel isn't powered to lift the tyre up the kerb. I have seen vehicles that can go up vertical obstacles bigger than half the wheel diameter.

[Andy Burns]

But this week's terrorist (being the same age as me) would have had 'grandfathered' rights to drive 7.5 tonners

[Nightjar]

It is most commonly the bottom, or on very small cars, the top of the screen.

Others have pop-up bonnets, to give better protection against a head striking the windscreen wiper/bottom edge area. Volvo have developed an external airbag to protect that area.

Already in use on top model cars, such as the Mercedes S Class, which has video cameras looking out for pedestrians and crossing traffic that other collision sensors will not pick up.

...

Even simple bollards spaced along the kerbs and set across the pavement at intervals would make it difficult to carry out the sort of attack that happened.

They are set 325mm above the carriageway.

They have been in use for half a century or more and have proven to be very good at keeping vehicles where they are supposed to be. This video shows the result of a car striking one.

[Nightjar]

That is why I specified younger extremists. Interesting that he didn't choose to hire a 7.5 tonner though.

[Roland Perry]

In message , at 11:14:53 on Thu, 23 Mar

2017, The Natural Philosopher remarked:

BBC News late in afternoon also said no-one was allowed to leave the building, having 15 seconds earlier shown a film of people trooping out of the building and across to Westminster Abbey. Which another news outlet reported as "only ten minutes away". By tortoise, perhaps.

[ARW]

If I copy the picture and zoom in on the copy I get the same registrations as you.

[The Natural Philosopher]

No right to drive 7.5 tonnes on a standard license has ever existed. 3.5 tonnes, yes.

Above that you need a C1.

[Andy Burns]

Plain wrong I'm afraid

My standard licence does indeed have category C1 for vehicles above 3.5 tonnes and not exceeding 7.5 tonnes

[dennis]

Now think about what happens when someone in a front wheel drive car drives up to the kerb and drives up it. If the wheel is much more than twice the diameter as the height it will be able to drive up it. With a four wheel drive car it can get the wheels up even if the wheels have a smaller diameter. Restraining a car at high speed is not the same as stopping someone getting past.

[Andy Burns]

Well that shows their claim that "containment kerbs remain undamaged and cause no damage to vehicles" to be bollox.

[Nightjar]

That is what you can drive if you pass the test today. The full list of what the old categories allowed and their current equivalents are given here:

[tim...]

well I don't :-(

tim