[LINK] Re: RUF Dual Mode transport system

[Tom Worthington]

At 01:51 PM 6/2/2006, Karl Auer wrote:
>... Cycle lanes with a dotted divider, at least a metre wide, are a 
>good compromise. You need minimal legislative support, cars can use 
>the extra width when there are no bikes, and they offer a basic 
>safety margin. ... delivery trucks and telephoning car drivers
>think of them as extra parking space.

Cambridge UK has some clever bicycle use, including streets which are 
one way for cars but two ways for bicycles. There is also an 
automatic bollard outside King's College Chapel, which retracts into 
the roadway to let some vehicles through <http://www.tomw.net.au/2004/europe/>.

Perhaps GPS can fix car problems. You could be charged for road use, 
automatically booked for speeding, illegal parking and the like. Of 
course the built in phone would refuse to take any calls while your 
car was in motion. The automated voice response system would say on 
your behalf "Yes dear, I am on his way to pick up the kids, ETA is 2 
minutes. I have parking slot 3 reserved in the school queuing system. 
Press 1 if you want me to get some milk on the way home, press 2 for 
bread ...".

In return for this, car owners could be offered a large discount on 
their road tax and insurance. You could afford to own a very large 
and impressive SUV, as long as you never drove it anywhere and did 
not park it on a street (might be better to pay the dealer to keep it 
at the car yard). With the savings you could run a small sensible 
car, or buy a season bus ticket.  ;-)



Tom Worthington FACS HLM tom.worthington at tomw.net.au Ph: 0419 496150
Director, Tomw Communications Pty Ltd            ABN: 17 088 714 309
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