future transport

[city pod]

At this moment in time all major cities and towns suffer from heavy loads of traffic. As a result large-scale congestion and poor air quality in urban areas is rife. People need to make the journey into these areas on a daily basis, the most common reason being the need to get to get to places of employment.

People need to be tempted away from using their cars for this commute everyday and encouraged onto public transport systems. This would make cities safer for pedestrians due to less traffic, and improve air quality. The problem is most people don

[tamias6]

Luring Americans to use public transit instead of the car is a tough nut to crack as the pride of having atonomy I.e. the control of owns own destiny being a corner stone of American culture plays a key factor in why Americans drive cars and the reason public transit is fighting an uphill battle. There is a that sense of being in control and the ability to go where ever one wants when ever one wants. Americans, myself included likes that. But I think at least some in this country are starting to wake up to the realities of the situation at hand, I.e. congestion, urban sprawl, long comutes, high gas prices, etc. However it seems that these issues for most are not enough to override the "The freedom of driving". Hybrid Cars and Alternative fuel cars will help matters. But sadly, they are not the magic bullet answer to the problem. Being that Atonomy is a highly valued aspect of American culture, Americans are not going to give up their cars for buses, trollies, and trains, come hell or high water. Thus a happy medium needs to be found. That would be in the form of park and ride based mass transit. Instead of going directly to the city in a car, one could drive to a near by park and ride station and take the means of mass transit into the city. We get the saving graces of mass transit in the form of less traffic jams and fuel savings and the users of the system still have that sense of atonomy they value simply by the act of driving their cars to their nearby park and ride stations.

[city pod]

I believe keeping the automobile for long journeys is a must and it will be impossible to persuade people away from using their cars in this sense. But for built up areas within cities there is no real advantage to be driving a car. Especially when near a CBD.

The park and ride solution is a good one but dose this just move the congestion elsewhere? And how big would park and ride car parks have to be to accommodate the volume of cars?

The freedom of control is also a strong factor. Maybe this element can

[Lance Winslow]

Road Capturing Strategies for Virtual Reality Truck Simulator Training

In the United States of America there is a severe shortage of truck drivers and it is only getting worse. In fact many trucking companies are placing ads on daytime TV to get housewives to come and sign-up as employees for truck drivers. Also many truck companies are trying to recruit people fresh out of prison, teach them had a drive a truck and put them on the road within two to three weeks.

Although trucking accidents are actually down in the United States of America as a percentage of the millions of miles traveled, they are still too high for many concerned citizens who are worried about auto safety. When a car hits a truck is pretty obvious, which one will win and this is why accidents with trucks and four wheelers are not pretty.

By putting more and more drivers on the road many trucking companies are concerned with increased accidents and since they are trying to increase the training, while actually cut down the time of the training at the same time things are very difficult. Currently many trucking companies use virtual reality truck simulators to help with the training.

However, these truck simulators need more roads so that the truck driver trainee can actually go all the way across the country and be put into many different situations and many different roads.

It makes sense to drive a truck with a camera on it and to film the road in front of the truck on all types of roads. The camera should be set where the driver sits and then this footage can be taken back to the film editing room to be digitized and used in the truck virtual reality simulators. Perhaps you might consider this in 2006.

CO2 Laser Truck Propulsion Post Engine Exhaust Enhancement

We all know that trucks on our highways are essential for distribution of products and services. We also may have heard comments that if the trucks stop in our Nation then so does America in about one week. In other words all the store shelves would be empty, no fuel at gasoline stations and basically this would lead to a halted economy and perhaps even civil unrest, protests and riots in the streets of the United States of America.

Well to help our over the road trucks and 18-wheelers remain more efficient why not add more cleaner propulsion to their already turbo efficient diesel motors? How so you ask, as the modern diesel engine is efficient, like none other in our history. Indeed, the current state of the industry and efficient motors are truly incredible and a tribute to American ingenuity, one cannot deny this truth or underestimate the recent strides in progress there.

Yet what if I ask; what if we take that exhaust coming out the smoke stacks of the trucker

[Lance Winslow]

Agreed. Local delivery vehicles and efficiency is very important indeed. Routing too and time of day to avoid traffic also. You make a strong point.

Hybrid Trucks;

We have all heard all the talk about the fuel economy and innovations of Hybrid Cars and how they are sweeping the nation. Last year in 2004 in fact over 88,000 Hybrids were sold and waiting lists are still climbing. Honda, Toyota and Ford cannot build them fast enough. Things are changing indeed. Although still a drop in the bucket considering the average 17 million cars sold each year in the United States we can see a hyperbolic trend forming as oil prices stay high. Also with China and India entering the global game for demand for oil we will see the price per barrel to continue to remain high even if OPEC decides to stay on the same team, which built their industry there.

The Japanese are now showcasing their technologies in medium sized trucks. In fact Hino Motors, which makes the very popular box type delivery trucks you see around town is now making a diesel electric version to be available in the 2006 models in the US. They have been available in Japan since 2003. The unit is called the Hino 165 Hybrid; pictured here:

http://fleetowner.com/hino.gif

The price is still a little steep at $116,000 per truck which is just over two times the cost, but Hino a spokesman said in Transport Topics that in fact the fuel savings over a three year period would cover the additional costs and the Public Relations for companies and the tax incentives in states like MA, CA and NY would more than entice buyers to switch over. The fuel saving is a solid 14 to 27% over the conventional models like the Isuzu and other competing trucks like the one pictured here;

http://www.newtrucks.com/pics/isuzublusky.jpg

Hino of North America is convinced that buyers will put up the extra money for the new hybrids and many government agencies are already trying to order them. Meanwhile waiting lists at some fleet dealership locations are not forming. Think on this.

[prtsupporter]

The problem is most people don't have faith in their local public transport due to poor management, low class status, the inability of being able to take them directly to where they want to be or bad maintenance.

My question to you is what would be the best way of tackling this problem?

[tampasteve]

cough...post digger...cough Old topic, no new news, recipe for a great thread.

[prtsupporter]

cough...post digger...cough Old topic, no new news, recipe for a great thread.