[LINK] Standards, please! The third coming of electric vehicles

Tom Worthington tom.worthington at tomw.net.au
Mon Apr 23 08:33:22 AEST 2012


On 20/04/12 15:54, Marghanita da Cruz wrote:

> ... we need to move away from dependence on private vehicles
> (allocation of land for roads/parking etc). ...

Just to get this back on topic for Link, public transport systems can 
incorporate telecommunications so that they have more of the convenience 
of private transport. If the system knows in advance where and when you 
want to travel, the load can be better handled. Also if people know when 
the service will arrive they can better plan.

In 2005 the ACT Government proposed building a bus-way on a route 
designed for a future light rail line. But Canberra does not suit light 
rail, being so dispersed. Instead I suggested a bus lane on the road 
(which has been done) and wait for public transport technology to improve:
http://www.tomw.net.au/technology/transport/highway.shtml

Australian engineering company Bishop proposed electric powered pods
running on lightweight rails for their "Austrans" system. They produced
and mock-up of a nine seater pod and an animation of these running on
elevated tracks across the Sydney harbour bridge and into the CBD.
CSIRO did a computer analysis of how many pods would be needed to cater
for passengers. Bishop argued that such a system could provide the speed
and capacity of a metro, with a more individual service like a lift.

There have been some pod systems implemented, such as the ULTra at
Heathrow Airport. But these tend to be slow and sort range:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ULTra_%28rapid_transit%29

But a simpler was to keep the passengers happy is the bar in Brisbane 
Central station and a beer gardens built on to some Berlin stations. If 
the train is late, no problem, just have another beer. ;-)


-- 
Tom Worthington FACS CP, TomW Communications Pty Ltd. t: 0419496150
PO Box 13, Belconnen ACT 2617, Australia  http://www.tomw.net.au
Liability limited by a scheme approved under Professional Standards
Legislation

Adjunct Lecturer, Research School of Computer Science,
Australian National University http://cs.anu.edu.au/courses/COMP7310/



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