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?
As an example, we can calculate the power of a 1000 kg sports car that can accelerate from 0 to 100 km / h in 10 seconds. In order to be able to get our calculation directly in Joules, we must first convert the velocity to one meter / second.
Then the work of the car engine is equal to the change in the kinetic energy of the car, we have it
The corresponding power in watts (unit of electric power measurement) is obtained by dividing the work done in Joules by the elapsed time, so the power is 386,000 / 10 = 38,600 watts. In terms of horsepower, we see that the car has 38,600 / 746 = 52 hp in the car, most of the work is done by an engine that increases friction and air resistance, so that the 53 hp (horsepower) engine will not produce the type of acceleration mentioned in the example This is ideal.
Now that we know that work changes kinetic energy, it is possible to give another interpretation to the idea of negative work. Positive work done on an object increases its kinetic energy as stated above, while negative work decreases its kinetic energy. It also clarifies our previous example of a negative job: If the vehicle degrades toward you and you push the vehicle against, it slows down and reduces its kinetic energy.
As an example, we can calculate the power of a 1000 kg sports car that can accelerate from 0 to 100 km / h in 10 seconds. In order to be able to get our calculation directly in Joules, we must first convert the velocity to one meter / second.
Then the work of the car engine is equal to the change in the kinetic energy of the car, we have it
The corresponding power in watts (unit of electric power measurement) is obtained by dividing the work done in Joules by the elapsed time, so the power is 386,000 / 10 = 38,600 watts. In terms of horsepower, we see that the car has 38,600 / 746 = 52 hp in the car, most of the work is done by an engine that increases friction and air resistance, so that the 53 hp (horsepower) engine will not produce the type of acceleration mentioned in the example This is ideal.
Now that we know that work changes kinetic energy, it is possible to give another interpretation to the idea of negative work. Positive work done on an object increases its kinetic energy as stated above, while negative work decreases its kinetic energy. It also clarifies our previous example of a negative job: If the vehicle degrades toward you and you push the vehicle against, it slows down and reduces its kinetic energy.