On 05/04/16 21:46, Ivan Trundle wrote:
... limitations to the concept of ‘driverless’ cars. ...
Transit lanes for driver-less cars, buses and taxis might be viable. This would allow more efficient use of the road, as vehicles could be spaced closer together. It would be much cheaper than building new tram lines, freeways, tunnels and bridges. There would just be some signs and lane markings needed, along with infringement cameras to book anyone foolish enough to try manually driving a vehicle in an automated lane.
Canberra's next local government will likely be decided on the issue of if the city should have trams or buses: http://www.canberratimes.com.au/act-news/liberals-bus-plans-logical-but-devil-in-the-detail-says-top-bus-consultant-20160401-gnw81g.html
Adelaide < http://blog.tomw.net.au/2009/04/travelling-worlds-longest-guided-busway.html > and Cambridge < http://blog.tomw.net.au/2015/07/longest-guided-busway.html > have guided bus-ways. These allow specially modified buses to leave the public roads and be steered on concrete tracks through the countryside. However, the track just steers and the driver has to accelerate and brake. As a result the bus-way can't accommodate any more traffic than a regular road.
The trams proposed by the current ACT Government would be self-steering (as they run on rails), but a driver would still accelerate and brake the vehicles, thus limiting the capacity of the system (and having a higher infrastructure cost than buses). The Opposition proposes a bus rapid transit system, but using conventional buses on existing roads.
In my view, Canberra should build a bus transit system, with transit lanes suitable for autonomous vehicles.
-- Tom Worthington FACS CP, TomW Communications Pty Ltd. t: 0419496150 The Higher Education Whisperer http://blog.highereducationwhisperer.com/ PO Box 13, Belconnen ACT 2617, Australia http://www.tomw.net.au Liability limited by a scheme approved under Professional Standards Legislation Adjunct Lecturer, Research School of Computer Science, College of Engineering & Computer Science, Australian National University http://people.cecs.anu.edu.au/user/3890 http://orcid.org/0000-0003-4799-8464 _______________________________________________ Link mailing list [email protected] http://mailman.anu.edu.au/mailman/listinfo/link
