Road transport

ᔥ The Telegraph

Len Brown should be looking at this initiative in Nevada instead of wasting billions on a silly trainset:

Driverless cars are to be allowed on the roads of Nevada, which has become the first state in America to allow the vehicles to licence their use.

Google which has embarked on an extensive testing programme of the cars secured the approval of the state’s Department of Motor Vehicles.

Motor manufacturers have been working on taking human error out of driving for more than a decade with innovations such as lane departure warning, self applying brakes and cars which park themselves.

Google, however, has come up with the ultimate version of cruise control, by removing the driver completely with the help of video cameras, lasers and radar sensors.

It relies on mapping which is created by Google’s own staff who drive the route filling in the location of lane markings and road signs.

Despite being controlled by a computer, two people must sit in the car at all times.

They will be held responsible for the car’s behaviour. As the vehicle will only be able to break the speed limit if the driver takes control, he or she would receive the speeding fine.

But he or she will be able to spend the journey on the phone or even texting without putting other road users at risk.

A test car, which has already been tested in California, has already covered 140,000 miles without any mishap – apart from being nudged from behind at a set of traffic lights.

Yesterday driving to the office I saw this prime example of poor tie-down technique on Te Irirangi Drive in East Tamaki.

There were no corner boards and the chain twitches had crushed and cut into the box. What ever was in it probably wasn’t going to be in pristine condition.

ᔥ NZ Herald

Cameron Brewer seems to have lost his conservative credentials, he seems all in favour of Len Brown loopy Rail loop:

Councillor Cameron Brewer, who chairs the forum, said yesterday that there could be some variation in the toll according to time of day and location but an average of $2 would raise about $700 million a year.

“That would go a long way to servicing and making inroads into the $11.7 billion funding shortfall,” he told the Herald.

…

But Mr Brewer said motorists should realise that 57 per cent of transport funding proposed by the 30-year Auckland Plan was for roading projects, leaving 40 per cent for public transport proposals such as the inner-city rail tunnel and 3 per cent for walking and cycling.

“If you don’t pay it through tolls, then you’re going to have to pay it through your taxes or rates,” he said.

Wrong Cameron…Just ditch the 40 per cent funding for the rail loop and chuck that on the other 57% and you have 97% for roading projects without any need for new road tax (which is what tolls are) or increased rates. There I fixed that for you.

ᔥAndrew Sullivan

This is what intersections would look like if there were autonomous driverless cars:

ᔥEmily Badger writes:

Right now, you may wind up sitting at a red light for 45 seconds even though no one is passing through the green light in the opposite direction. But you don’t have to do that in a world where traffic flows according to computer communication instead of the systems that have been built with human behavior in mind. … Because of this, we won’t need traffic lights at all (or stop signs, for that matter). Traffic will constantly flow, and at a rate that would probably unnerve the average human driver.

Instead of focusing on large cost public transport infrastructure projects we should instead be focusing on providing the data networks and roading structures that would support a huge fleet of driverless cars.

Instead of driving being dead time for the driver you would instead be able to complete tasks otherwise taken up with driving. For me it would mean being able to publish a post about something I just heard on the radio, or saw as I drove by.

Tv3 ran a story about the new driving tests. The reporter in the clip wasn’t wearing her seatbelt correctly. Regan at Throng blogs about it:

On 3 News on Sunday night, Janika Ter Ellen did a story on changes to driving tests that will make it more difficult to get a license.  At the end of the story, the driving instructor told her

You’ve passed the test, so congratulations.

But did she?

Looking at the above photo, taken from the full bulletin (20:35), you can clearly see that Janika is driving with her seatbelt under her arm.

According to the road code,

There should be just enough room to slide the palm of your hand between the belt and your chest.

We found one case online where police threatened to issue a ticket in a similar situation.  Anyone who has sat a restricted driving test knows how pedantic the instructors can be so we’re curious to know why a pass was given in this instance.

Interestingly enough, this clip appears to have been edited out of the individual story.

The Give Way rules are set to change…get ready for mayhem on the roads…though the beltway boffins in Wellington reckon that it will all go smoothly…they have clearly never driven in South Auckland.

The Transport Agency will spend $1.2 million on publicity in the 10 days preceding the rule change, which will bring NZ into line with the world by requiring vehicles turning right at intersections to give way to those turning left.

It plans a “short and sharp” campaign so drivers do not start practising too early for the change, causing extra mayhem on the roads.

Although right-turning vehicles have had the right of way since 1977, there is still considerable confusion among opposing drivers at intersections, and the agency has chosen what it hopes will be a quiet Sunday to revert to the previous regime.

Drivers turning right into uncontrolled intersections from “terminating” roads will also be required to give way to those crossing their paths from the left, also reversing an existing rule.

The publicity drive will include a leaflet drop to 1.73 million households and video updates to the giveway.govt.nz website.

Auckland Transport has also allocated $76,000 for regional publicity and expects to spend about $500,000 on intersection modifications. Its website will include an interactive learning “tool” for drivers to practise the proposed changes.

The new year is ushered in by the death of a stupid person. The media calls them a pedestrian but as well know there is no such thing as a pedestrian on a motorway:

A pedestrian has been run over and killed on an Auckland motorway this morning.

Counties Manukau police have closed the Mangere-airport motorway to all south-bound traffic, northern communications Inspector Lou Alofa said.

All traffic heading south was being directed off the Walmsley Rd off-ramp. North-bound traffic was not affected.

“Motorists travelling south are advised to take the Mahunga Dr turn off if possible to relieve the backlog on Walmsley Rd, particularly those heading for the airport,” Alofa said.

The serious crash unit was investigating the collision.

The cops are going to crack down on slow drivers:

They’re tough on speeding, drunk and cellphone-using motorists – now police are turning their attention to those below the speed limit.

Officers will aim to keep busy holiday roads moving by keeping an eye on slow drivers, and say those caught holding up traffic could face fines.

National road safety adviser Superintendent Paula Rose said people were welcome to drive slowly but they needed to be courteous by allowing other road-users to pass safely.

“We are acutely aware of how slow drivers can cause frustration and impatience with other drivers, and sometimes people make bad choices to overtake in a bad spot because the person in front has a queue of traffic behind them,” she said.

“When you’ve got car after car behind a driver going 60km, 30km or 20km below the speed limit, all we’re saying is when there’s an safe opportunity to pull over to the side of the road, please, please do so.”

In some cases, slow driving could amount to careless driving, which could lead to fines or licence disqualification, Ms Rose said.

If I was dictator for life I would pass road safety laws that prohibit people with boats, caravans and trailers from travelling in the holiday season, public holidays etc at any times other than between 2am and 6am.

As predicted Labour and Len Brown have done a sneaky and furtive deal so Len can buy a trainset:

Labour would scrap the so-called “holiday highway” to fund the Auckland city rail link.

Announcing the party’s transport policy today, Labour leader Phil Goff said it would cancel the $1.69 billion Puhoi to Wellsford highway and dedicate $1.2b from the Land Transport Fund to the city rail link.

That funding would cover half the $2.4b cost of the rail link, with the other half to be funded by Auckland Council.

Nice one boys. With that one policy launch Labour has committed Aucklanders to massive rates rises, tolls and congestion pricing and decided to focus on passenger transport rather than clearing bottlenecks in the road transport network north of the bridge.

With Whangarei and Marsden point set to expand as the only viable deep water port near Auckland, Labour has condemned growth int he North at the expense of about 5% of Aucklanders who take the train.

Labour likes to call the Puhoi to Wellsford extension the “holiday highway”. Way to go on winning over provincial voters.

For the record, Wellsford, Whangarei, the Ports of Northland, the Bay of Islands and the Far North are important sectors for NZ. Likewise, the North of Auckland is an important growth area, if not the fastest growth area in NZs biggest city. Giving a superior connection to the Northern provinces of NZ and our biggest city and their growth areas strikes me as a good idea.

But then, such a policy wouldn’t make Jacinda Ardern electorally competitive in Auckland Central. (You may recall she stood in rural Waikato in 2008, or nowhere as Labour call it.)

No wonder that there isn’t a red seat north of the bridge.

If Auckland was the first city to have automated cars there would be huge prime mover advantage for technology companies in New Zealand as the inevitable global expansion occurs.

Google’s fleet of robotic Toyota Priuses has now logged more than 190,000 miles (about 300,000 kilometers), driving in city traffic, busy highways, and mountainous roads with only occasional human intervention. The project is still far from becoming commercially viable, but Google has set up a demonstration system on its campus, using driverless golf carts, which points to how the technology could change transportation even in the near future.

…Thrun and his Google colleagues, including co-founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin, are convinced that smarter vehicles could help make transportation safer and more efficient: Cars would drive closer to each other, making better use of the 80 percent to 90 percent of empty space on roads, and also form speedy convoys on freeways. They would react faster than humans to avoid accidents, potentially saving thousands of lives. Making vehicles smarter will require lots of computing power and data, and that’s why it makes sense for Google to back the project…

Of course it would also necessitate faster data networks in and around the city benefitting us all as a side benefit.