(24-11-2022, 10:25 AM)Oldfellah Wrote: I suppose one of the next options would be to put tamper proof speed limiter in cars so they can only go at a certain speed (lets hope no government thinks of that)
You are assuming that speed is the biggest problem. I think it is an important problem but not as important as drink/drugs/inattention - whihc can all lead to unintentional speeding. Thinking your suggestion through though, it's probably already nearly there. We have cars that know where the edge of the road is and when linked to gps know what speed you are supposed to be doing, so a limiter added in is probably not difficult.
(23-11-2022, 10:46 AM)Lilith7 Wrote: The state of the roads might be improved if we were to revive rail for transporting goods & perhaps legalise lighter loads for trucks. That, & constant repairs.
I always thought that the deregulation in the 80s was really dumb, but now that we have a whole road transport industry set up it would be very difficult to go back. We would need to compensate all the companies that now rely on road transport. And we have to remember that the larger trucks reduce the number of actual vehicles on the road. Sure they are heavier and cause more wear and tear, but they pay their way in RUCs. The biggest problem is that the taxes collected aren't spent fairly. The roads get "maintained" to a very low standard and the traffic then lifts the surface and we get into the endless circle of pot holes, etc. If the roads were built and maintained properly then the trucks wouldn't have such an impact.
If we put everything back on to rail, we would also have huge holdups at every level crossing waiting for the trains to go through.
Public transport is great for some types of travel but totally inefficient and impractical for a lot. I just did the weekly shopping. A boot full of groceries and other purchases done in the same trip. How would you carry it all home on a bus? Especially when doing it by bus involves changing buses. The 16 minute drive becomes 3 buses and one hour each way with a few hundred metres of walking. The fares are more than fuel for the car.