How to use trains, some helpful hints and the occasional quarrel. Options

[Andy1]

Driverless cars means the car could be programmed for optimum efficiency, which includes speed and route management. That would mitigate the effect of traffic jams. You can't do anything about too many people wanting to be in the same place at the same time, but you can control the flow of traffic and therefore reduce the severity and likelihood of jams.

Optimising flow doesn't = fast. Optimising means making the best from what you have.

So, when there's a traffic jam, the cars stop moving, it can't be helped. Speed change isn't going to change that and taking alternate routes won't either because on a B road for instance there would be too many variables for that automated car to deal with. It will never be like Demolition Man, no matter what type of marketing is used.

[On the edge]

So, when there's a traffic jam, the cars stop moving, it can't be helped. Speed change isn't going to change that and taking alternate routes won't either because on a B road for instance there would be too many variables for that automated car to deal with. It will never be like Demolition Man, no matter what type of marketing is used.

Be careful with that! 'Too many variables' used to be a classic stop line for technology Luddites back in the 50s and 60s.

[Andy Capp]

So, when there's a traffic jam, the cars stop moving, it can't be helped.

The point is driverless cars could avoid a jam developing by using accident avoidance systems and by managing the flow of traffic at pinch spots. And should a jam occur, they can reduce the effect of the jam becoming worse.

Systems like TomTom could be built into the driverless operation. A simple illustration of this is a while back I used my TomTom to tell me the traffic situation it Reading. I saw the traffic was so bad, I took the decision to not bother, thus I avoided adding to the problem. I also hit a jam in Reading once and my TomTom advised me of an alternative route which was longer, but quicker due to traffic congestion. Both incidence were caused by an accident, an accident that might not have happened with computer controlled drivers.

Another one is rubber necking and the inexplicable phenomena of when cars come to a halt on the motorway for no apparent reason. This can be ironed out with computer controlled cars which monitor the road and adjust driving accordingly.

Computer controlled cars will also be able to drive closer together than humans, so improving road capacity.

Speed change isn't going to change that and taking alternate routes won't either because on a B road for instance there would be too many variables for that automated car to deal with. It will never be like Demolition Man, no matter what type of marketing is used.

I'm sorry, but that is not the case. Speed management can enhance traffic flow and thus reduce jams occurring.

There are hurdles through. The tech is still quite infantile. Also, there are many places I know how to get to but have no idea of the address, so with out knowing the address, you can't go there easily. Also, who's at fault in an accident cause by malfunction.

My view is driverless cars will put professional drivers out of a job (like taxi and haulage), but it does seem like a 20thC solution that might in itself become redundant with 21stC tech and lifestyles.



PS - Piggy Bank is a euphemism for speed cameras.

[Berkshirelad]

Systems like TomTom could be built into the driverless operation. A simple illustration of this is a while back I used my TomTom to tell me the traffic situation it Reading. I saw the traffic was so bad, I took the decision to not bother, thus I avoided adding to the problem. I also hit a jam in Reading once and my TomTom advised me of an alternative route which was longer, but quicker due to traffic congestion. Both incidence were caused by an accident, an accident that might not have happened with computer controlled drivers.

...but blind following of SatNav is what causes people (and driverless cars?) to turn onto railways and rivers

The fun bit (said with tongue in cheek) is that the 'infantile' tech is programmed to avoid collisions and so will be easy to 'bully' by cars with drivers

[je suis Charlie]

https://youtu.be/sD7J2t7D1jE

This is driverless cars, not some Orwellian / Jetson mutant. This, this is the future.

[On the edge]

...but blind following of SatNav is what causes people (and driverless cars?) to turn onto railways and rivers

The fun bit (said with tongue in cheek) is that the 'infantile' tech is programmed to avoid collisions and so will be easy to 'bully' by cars with drivers

I just love the idea that something or someone driving better than you is a bully!

Looking forward to being able to security tag my valuables and shop stock, so if some little toad makes off with it, the vehicle just delivers him to nearest Police Station.

[Turin Machine]

Some of the pro's and con's

PRO
Can finally spend quality time fiddling with radio knobs

Cities with poor public transportation given the opportunity to dump the systemic problem onto Google or whoever

Frees up drivers to be obscene and aggressive toward each other in all sorts of new ways

Massive savings on steering wheel maintenance

No longer necessary to put life at risk each time you want to adjust the wrapper on your cheese and bacon melt

History has proven that new technological advancements never have any unintended fallout

Don’t have to do thing you previously had to do

CON
Drag races only capable of ending in moderately paced ties

Parents miss out on cherished tradition of improperly teaching child how to parallel park

Not yet confirmed whether they come in blue

Science fiction writers forced to come up with new lazy shorthand for futuristic landscape

Won’t get to threaten truant police officers with six weeks of traffic duty anymore

Majority of Beach Boys catalog now irrelevant

Someone definitely going to hack these things


With thanks to 'The Onion'

[Andy Capp]

So when is the 09:41 to Basingstoke 2 minutes late, but isn't? When it's the 09:46 and on time of course! Bloody Reading station!

[On the edge]

So when is the 09:41 to Basingstoke 2 minutes late, but isn't? When it's the 09:46 and on time of course! Bloody Reading station!

You are becoming Reggie Perrin!

[Turin Machine]

"Sorry CJ, ten minutes late, badger on the line at Woolhampton"

[Andy Capp]

You are becoming Reggie Perrin!

Maybe, but perhaps the meek deserve the crap service we pay for. There was a serious side in that I couldn't initially find the train.

[On the edge]

Maybe, but perhaps the meek deserve the crap service we pay for. There was a serious side in that I couldn't initially find the train.

Indeed. The whole rail issue is an object lesson for any de facto monopoly claiming to deliver 'customer service'. Unless you deliver even the basics, you'll earn the undying enmity of those you seek to serve. Very few are going to believe you can actually deliver a new dawn, because you can't even cope with the stuff you have already! All pretty basic 'O' level marketing.

So why doesn't anyone listen? Why should they; the bonuses keep on coming; rain or shine. Still, such a good thing Labour got rid of Clause 4 wasn't it!

[JeffG]

There was a serious side in that I couldn't initially find the train.

They are long things with wheels and several bits joined together.

[Andy Capp]

They are long things with wheels and several bits joined together.

Yes, but they don't all go to the same place at the desired time.

[je suis Charlie]

Yes, but they don't all go to the same place at the desired time.

Yes! Yes they do. The engine bit goes at the pointy end and all the joined up bits follow along, and presumably end up in the same place afterwards. This isn't BA and my luggage you know. Moo moo!

[Andy Capp]

Yes! Yes they do. The engine bit goes at the pointy end and all the joined up bits follow along, and presumably end up in the same place afterwards.

Agreed, but that describes only one train. JeffG was describing more than one train. Oink, oink!

This isn't BA and my luggage you know. Moo moo!

That's right. Luggage is packages of stuff you often wear or have worn, or use, when visiting somewhere. Trains are things that take people and luggage to places. Oink, oink!

Anyway, what about the deceptive way that CrossCountry Rail pretended their train was on time?

[On the edge]

Perhaps we need that Italian chap who made the trains run on time.

[Biker1]

Perhaps we need that Italian chap who made the trains run on time.

What this guy?
"the crap service we pay for" but at least we tend not to run them into each other.
Not recently anyway. Long time since Ladbroke Grove.
Crashes due to track and third party involvement more recently buy no lives lost for the last 10 years at the fault of the railway.
(Before anyone mentions it, trams run on different principles to main line railways.)

[Berkshirelad]

I see in the papers that one guy has used Clause 75 with his Amex card to reclaim half the cost of his Southern Rail season ticket because the service provided was inadequate

[On the edge]

What this guy?
"the crap service we pay for" but at least we tend not to run them into each other.
Not recently anyway. Long time since Ladbroke Grove.
Crashes due to track and third party involvement more recently buy no lives lost for the last 10 years at the fault of the railway.
(Before anyone mentions it, trams run on different principles to main line railways.)

No, Biker, I meant Mussolini!

(Mind, if he was still around, you wouldn't have seen anything like that........he controlled the media too!)