There have been many reports of motorists using the lack of traffic on the roads during the Covid19 lockdown to flout the speed limits and now with more traffic back on the roads there is a danger that some may continue to drive at excessive speeds even after things are back to ‘normal’.
Behavioural Science in transportation (understanding the behaviour and motivations of transport users such as motorists and rail commuters etc) is a fascinating subject which plays a big part in the engineering and design of roads and their ‘furniture’ in an attempt to gently persuade drivers to modify their driving behaviour to something more appropriate.
There are many such psychological tactics in place to combat speeding but could we be doing more? What other engineering solutions could be implemented to stop excessive speeding? How do different countries tackle speeding on their roads? What could we learn from them?
Have braking distances improved over time? I am not so sure. However good the driver or the brakes, ultimately it depends on the coefficient of friction between rubber and asphalt. Since this is a fairly innate physical feature, my guess is that it has not improved by much. I should be very interested if anyone has any reliable data on this. It is probably sensible to stick to the long-established figures for braking to stay on the safe side.
Oh gosh yes they've improved. First disc brakes and then ABS were quantum steps in braking improvement. But whether braking distances have improved significantly in, say, the last 30 years I'd agree is perhaps more open to question. They probably are improving incrementally due to improvements in tyres, road surfaces. Car weight would be a factor but I must admit I am confused as to whether this is typically higher or lower than it used to be! (see the article I reference below).
Putting our foot on the brake and the car coming gracefully to a halt in a controlled manner is something we take for granted so much now that it's easy to forget that many of us (who really aren't that old ?) used to have just put our foot down and hope - and it took considerable skill in slippery conditions. My worst ever experience - which was extremely frightening - was a braking distance of around 2 miles through the Peak District due to overheated drum brakes,,,,
Just found this article https://www.diaryofanadi.co.uk/?p=21456 which in turn refers to this one https://www.howardsgroup.co.uk/news/group/stopping-distance-is-the-highway-code-wrong which have a range of strong viewpoints and calculations on this issue. I was particularly amused that it says (I don't know whether is true or not) "A Ford Anglia [was] the car allegedly used to set the current numbers." Actually if so it would have been the version of the Ford Anglia prior to the one I learned to drive on, but certainly the one I learned on - drum brakes all round and no ABS - was an interesting object to try to slow down!
However, I very strongly suspect that the excellent braking of modern cars gives a false sense of security, and may well have caused drivers to drive faster without full awareness of the observing and thinking time factors.
Have braking distances improved over time? I am not so sure. However good the driver or the brakes, ultimately it depends on the coefficient of friction between rubber and asphalt. Since this is a fairly innate physical feature, my guess is that it has not improved by much. I should be very interested if anyone has any reliable data on this. It is probably sensible to stick to the long-established figures for braking to stay on the safe side.
Oh gosh yes they've improved. First disc brakes and then ABS were quantum steps in braking improvement. But whether braking distances have improved significantly in, say, the last 30 years I'd agree is perhaps more open to question. They probably are improving incrementally due to improvements in tyres, road surfaces. Car weight would be a factor but I must admit I am confused as to whether this is typically higher or lower than it used to be! (see the article I reference below).
Putting our foot on the brake and the car coming gracefully to a halt in a controlled manner is something we take for granted so much now that it's easy to forget that many of us (who really aren't that old ?) used to have just put our foot down and hope - and it took considerable skill in slippery conditions. My worst ever experience - which was extremely frightening - was a braking distance of around 2 miles through the Peak District due to overheated drum brakes,,,,
Just found this article https://www.diaryofanadi.co.uk/?p=21456 which in turn refers to this one https://www.howardsgroup.co.uk/news/group/stopping-distance-is-the-highway-code-wrong which have a range of strong viewpoints and calculations on this issue. I was particularly amused that it says (I don't know whether is true or not) "A Ford Anglia [was] the car allegedly used to set the current numbers." Actually if so it would have been the version of the Ford Anglia prior to the one I learned to drive on, but certainly the one I learned on - drum brakes all round and no ABS - was an interesting object to try to slow down!
However, I very strongly suspect that the excellent braking of modern cars gives a false sense of security, and may well have caused drivers to drive faster without full awareness of the observing and thinking time factors.
