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Well, you all know what a civil engineering does here: I think we must translate circuit design expertise into better roads. It has been done for cars, why can't we do the same for roads? The main problems, I think, are: young people racing on roads (yes, I'm talking about you) and poorly designed and signalized roads.

Yes, besides racing only in racing tracks and taking the race driver course, you could send a letter to your local politician, subscribe to the e-mail list to get news and put a banner at your favorite website.

I'm pushing as hard as I can to introduce racing into school sports (kart racing, of course). I want every children to get a FIA license before they start driving in roads (yeah, I can see the problem here, but if you play basketball, football or some other sports, why is this a problem, really?)



This year's road deaths will surpass deaths by all kinds of killings (wars, murder, suicide, you name it). Then, what's a priority, Afghanistan or road design? Isn't it time to stop making roads (and, perhaps, vehicles) in this stupid way? Where is the engineering in this?

We can make a better world, right now: it's easy
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hzb9PH9oE6A[/youtube]

So, what are you doing in your neighboor? Are you doing something? How many kids have you taught to race? I'd love to hear from you.





NOTE: I read the following post by Xpensive, while editing this one. He's right, every accident study shows that the main problems are infrastructure poorly designed and young people (you) racing on roads.

What's that the NRA says, everytime someone wipes out the office where he used to work before being downsized,
"Weapons don't kill, people do"?

Why not dream up a travesty on that one, like "Cars don't kill, roads do"?

There already is one: "speed dont kill, but the sudden lack of it" or something like that.

Here in Argentina we pioneer the dangerous roads design. We are like Evel Knievel but with stupidity included.

We also pioneer motorsports since TC and Fangio, so my compatriots race everywhere, ALL the time, in out dangerous roads.

Thats why we are leaders in deaths.

And what does our governors do because of that? They put speed bumps! EVERYWHERE!

Everytime a person is killed, a new speed bump is put on that place! Seriously!

So now people had this problem: rough roads, full of bumps and destroyed cars. How to speed like this? Fortunatelly the Dakar brought us the solution: you have to have a Dakar vehicle to do road racing here and still avoid your car from falling apart.

That may explain why here rich people has monster SUVs instead of sportcars.

I had an idea when I was about 10 to put a TV at every blind-corner to show if there were any cars coming from the opposite direction, so they could slow down and avoid a nasty accident. I have since grown to realise, that idea is impossible to do, plus a massive waste of energy.

But the matter remains, if a 10 year old kid can recognise the danger posed by road-design why can't the road designers?

The goverment in the UK seems to place Cameras everywhere in the hope they'll prevent an accident. Instead of upgrading the tarmac to acceptable levels and filling in pot-holes.
Just today, on the way home, there was a 1 mile (1.6km) stretch of road with a crack running down the middle where the tar was seperating. Completely unacceptable!

I shall join this campaign, road design needs to improve!
For all the Scots on the board. I assume you're all aware of the A9, yes? It was designed with a top speed of 50mph in mind for the sight-lines.
For those not from Scotland. The A9 is the main road from Mid-Scotland North, almost all the way to the top. All the lorries, cars, buses & vans use it to get from one part of the country to another.

roost89 wrote:I had an idea when I was about 10 to put a TV at every blind-corner to show if there were any cars coming from the opposite direction, so they could slow down and avoid a nasty accident. I have since grown to realise, that idea is impossible to do, plus a massive waste of energy.
.

cheaper and simpler

The Young Drivers of Canada course is widely accepted as one of the best. They teach you defensive driving, and if you follow all their rules, barring an act of god, you will never get in an accident, ever.

It has worked for me. Never contacted my car to another.

But I have also done some very bad bad things. Driving from Calgary to Winnipeg in 10.5 hours was a little crazy. 170km/h occasionally creeping up to 180km/h, in a CRX on the Trans Canada Highway. Without stops for lunch and gas and such, it would be 130km/h constant.

My other bad thing was doing 220 in a 94 Integra (Base model!!) 5 speed. I know speedos are not accurate that high, but considering the belts in all four Bridgestones got warped, it wasn't my smartest moment, but it was my fastest.

Giblet wrote:My other bad thing was doing 220 in a 94 Integra (Base model!!) 5 speed. I know speedos are not accurate that high, but considering the belts in all four Bridgestones got warped, it wasn't my smartest moment, but it was my fastest.

Tires got warped? At only 136 mph? strange, I been way over speed rating for tires and never warped them, as far as I know.

Canada's worst driver TV show is hilarious.

on 4 lane highways, i was wondering if you could plant trees in the middle of the highways so as to keep a car spinning to the other lane a one car accident. granted when they hit the tree it might hurt

Shrek wrote:on 4 lane highways, i was wondering if you could plant trees in the middle of the highways so as to keep a car spinning to the other lane a one car accident. granted when they hit the tree it might hurt

If it's in the median area; they already have concrete barriers on most urban highways.

I would opt for no trees though, as with them there one has a 100% possibility of hitting something. Compared to no trees on a rural highway where there's little traffic, if you cross the median you might not hit anything. I can't speak from experience, but I think that hitting a tree at highway speeds is guaranteed to hurt!

A simple thought from my POV is that drivers around the world should be more educated in the basic driving skills and procedures. The fact that I'm in a first world country doesn't rid me of uneducated drivers that barely know how to drive. Making roads safer should also focus on educating rural populations around the world. It's more than likely a cheaper and quicker alternative to redesigning roads and their respective signage.

Although even with all of the possible driving education, you can't stop people from being careless and reckless.

1 huge problem we have here(in US, but miami specifically) is people running red lights.

I've always thought that they can kill 2 birds with 1 stone by timing the lights so that if you maintain the speed limit you will always catch the next light green. It would decrease fuel consumption(brakes & tires too), decrease speeding, and decrease red light runners.

Ciro, do you do any work in traffic management or only on the civil engineering side of road construction?

ISLAMATRON wrote:I've always thought that they can kill 2 birds with 1 stone by timing the lights so that if you maintain the speed limit you will always catch the next light green. It would decrease fuel consumption(brakes & tires too), decrease speeding, and decrease red light runners.

In my former hometown, the main streets were set up exactly like that. In light traffic, and while maintaining the speed limit, you'd never encounter a red light.

ISLAMATRON wrote:1 huge problem we have here(in US, but miami specifically) is people running red lights.

I've always thought that they can kill 2 birds with 1 stone by timing the lights so that if you maintain the speed limit you will always catch the next light green. It would decrease fuel consumption(brakes & tires too), decrease speeding, and decrease red light runners.

Ciro, do you do any work in traffic management or only on the civil engineering side of road construction?

This is something I would love to be executed in my country.

Also, there are traffic lights in corners where 100 cars/minute pass in one road and 1 car/minute pass in the perpendicular. Why? Oh why should I respect that traffic light? Me and a long cue of cars waste time, money and patience.

Lets bring traffic light sensors? With a car counter and a cpu that can store a program to make statistics and re-program light timing? [-o<

Thanks, guys. Very interesting comments.

Some quick info from what I know:

Roadside obstacles are a huge problem, beware of roads lined with trees or poles. A tree won't yield a bit, they are designed by nature exactly like high-tech skyscrapers: don't crash into trees! Poles are not designed by nature, but by us, the final effect is the same. Barriers are the answer. You should use New Jersey barriers to separate traffic: they are sloped at the base to push the car back into its lane.

The pole is intact! You won't


New Jersey Barrier: the key is the sloped edge at the base. Ask your politician, mayor or public works engineer for those barriers in high traffic roads divided only by a yellow double line!


New Jersey Barrier Analysis: it's the unseen front right wheel the one that helps more


Beware of roads where there are no flat run-off areas. Many people dies from cars rolling over when going out of the road and the lateral road slope is over a meager 10%. Do anything you can to stay on the road when lateral slopes are higher than 10%: you will lose all control of the vehicle once you go out of pavement and you have a high chance of your car rolling over.



Do anything you can to avoid a frontal crash against a vehicle in the opposite direction. Be specially careful if you drive a small, sporty car: your "share" of the energy in the crash will be larger! Besides, if you go over the median, you can be hit repeatedly (I swear I've seen people surviving a frontal crash just to be erased by a truck that came later, unsuspectedly, into the collision).

Please, I beg you: the times of claiming "road speed records" are a thing of the past: leave earlier and enjoy the trip. Get some music and sing, for example. There are few places on earth as good as a car with good speakers to learn about music and, to me, a trip is some kind of sighseeing movie.

Why? Well, when you go at twice the speed, your braking distance increases four times. So, if you have to go fast, be careful of blind spots, like vertical curves (hills) and horizontal curves: if there is an obstacle on the road you're toasted. If you travel by night, the distance that lights allow you to see is fixed (lights won't illuminate farher when you go faster, isn't it?), so your chances of avoiding an object like a fallen tree branch, a stopped car or an animal are very slim.

Try to travel by day, by all means. It's very easy to fall asleep (or to meet an incoming car with a driver who has fallen asleep!).

Rumble strips are a very cost effective way to "wake-up" tired drivers


Besides, if you travel by night, try to move your eyes around the road.

The "standard method" to avoid being blinded by incoming car lights is this: look at the side of the road ahead, then look at the side of the incoming car (avoid watching the lights, of course) and then look at the middle of the road ahead of your car.

Keep moving the eyes in a triangle (far right, far left, middle ahead). Why? Well, your eyes have 120 million cells called cones: they detect colours under bright light. On the side of your retina you have 6 million cells called rods: they detect only light, in black and white, under poor lightning conditions. Rods are the cells you use to see by night: they are very sensitive to movement (remember actors keeping still to avoid being detected by the Tyrannosaur at Jurassic Park? People argues that dinosaurs couldn't detect still objects, because the retinas of frogs and, suposedly, of dinosaurs are made mainly of rods). If the "image" is not moving, move your eyes to allow the rod cells, the ones your eye uses to see under low light, to "enhance" their chances of detection.

Finally, make a personal purpose of NOT hitting a pedestrian. Yes, you can crash your car and pay some money, but killing a pedestrian, a cyclist or a biker is a very different thing. You will be sorry all your life. When you drive in roads lined with parked cars, watch ahead under the floor of trucks (it's the only way to detect a pedestrian jaywalking). Be careful when you drive early in the morning (watch for people running or school kids), at the mid afternoon (when kids go out of school) and late in the night (because of drunken pedestrians).

More food for thought:

Things will get worse, says WHO (:) World Health Organization)

Belatti wrote: Lets bring traffic light sensors? With a car counter and a cpu that can store a program to make statistics and re-program light timing? [-o<

Believe it or not, but we've had traffic light sensors (magnetic detectors) in Sweden since the 70s, like if you're approaching a light in the middle of the night, the system will know you are the only car around and switch to green for you.

There was some stories about carbonfibre/ti/alu bikers did not activate the system fast enough and were killed like flies, but I don't believe that.

Thank you for the mirror Belatti. I've seen alot of these around.

I'm not sure how many people have seen this video. But it's from Fifth Gear. They compared the impact of a car vs a normal British lamp-post then compared with an impact with a "Larsen Safety Post". Relatively scientific experiment, same model and same speed.
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ER142t-7cJ8[/youtube]