GFIP to be 80% completed for World Cup, toll fee escalation possible

12 May 2010 (www.engineeringnews.co.za)

The 185 km first-phase Gauteng Freeway Improvement Project (GFIP) should be 80% completed by the start of the FIFA World Cup on June 11, said South African National Roads Agency Limited (Sanral) GFIP project leader Alex van Niekerk in Johannesburg on Wednesday.

Speaking at the Africa Roads conference, he said the concrete barriers currently protecting work areas would be removed for the sports event, and that most newly constructed lanes would be available to road users.

There would also be no road works on primary routes for the duration of the World Cup.

Speaking to Engineering News Online on the sidelines of the conference, Van Niekerk also indicated that the maximum toll fee charged could increase from the 2007 figure of 50 c/km to 65 c/km, with inflation the culprit.

Electronic open-road tolling (no stopping required) was on track to be implemented across the GFIP network in April 2011.

However, Van Niekerk said Sanral was still thrashing out the fee structure, and that it would attempt to stick as closely as possible to the 50 c/km. He added that the 65 c/km fee was also the maximum amount a car user would pay, and that it did not incorporate discounts for regular road users.

"We are not in this for profit. Sanral is not suppose to make a profit - but also not a loss. The toll fees are being implemented to pay for the GFIP project."

The first phase of GFIP carried a price tag of more than R20-billion, and included the widening of freeways through the addition of new lanes, while also upgrading interchanges.

Read the original article HERE.

Call for new clamp on bikes

10 May (motoring.iafrica.com)|

The US Insurance Institute for Highway Safety says its recent research strongly demonstrates the benefits of antilock brakes (ABS) for motorcycles. |

Based on findings that ABS significantly reduces motorcycle crashes, including fatal collisions, by more than a third, the Institute is seeking a federal requirement that manufacturers equip all new motorcycles with this technology.

"The best motorcycle crash is one that never happens," said Institute president Adrian Lund. "Traveling on 2 wheels instead of 4 is always riskier, but our new research shows that antilock brake technology can make motorcycle riding a much safer way to get around."

Tricky ride
Stopping a motorcycle not as easy as stopping a car. The front and rear wheels have separate brake controls and in an emergency, a rider faces split-second choices about which wheels to brake and how hard.

If the brakes are applied with too much pressure, the wheels can lock and cause the motorcycle to fall or overturn. If the brakes are applied too gently, the rider very obviously risks colliding with the obstacle.

This is when antilocks can help by reducing brake pressure when they detect impending lockup and then increasing the pressure again when traction is restored, so riders may brake fully without fear of locking up.

The Institue is quick to point out that ABS won't prevent every motorcycle crash. It said: "They won't help a rider about to be struck from behind, for example. But the new studies released in March indicate that antilocks reduce crashes overall and save lives."

Crash comparisons
Institute researchers compared the fatal crash experience of antilock-equipped motorcycles against their nonantilock counterparts during 2003-08. The main finding is that motorcycles with ABS versus those without are 37 percent less likely to be in fatal crashes per 10 000 registered vehicle years. |

Bolstering this finding is a separate analysis by the Highway Loss Data Institute (HLDI), an affiliate of the Insurance Institute. HLDI analyzed insurance claims filed for crash damage to motorcycles. Bike models with antilocks have 22 percent fewer claims for crash damage per insured vehicle year (a vehicle year is 1 vehicle insured for 1 year, 2 insured for 6 months, etc.) than the same models without antilocks. The results update earlier studies by the Institute and HLDI published in 2008.

In 2009 the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) announced that it was looking at the issue in light of the Institute's earlier study but stated that "an additional year of data and additional analyses are needed to determine the statistical significance of the results."

"Compelling evidence"
Now the two recent studies from the Institute and HLDI provide more "compelling evidence that antilocks reduce fatal crash risk and lower insurance losses," says Lund. "NHTSA has what it needs to move forward with a regulation."

Crash avoidance technology like motorcycle antilocks is especially important because more people are taking up riding and more are dying in crashes. Rider deaths in the US topped 5000 in 2008 - more than in any year since the federal government began collecting fatal crash data in 1975.

Although preliminary reports indicate that deaths declined in 2009, the upward trend in recent years comes amid record lows for passenger vehicle occupant deaths, prompting the Institute and HLDI to look harder at measures to stem motorcyclist deaths.

Read the original article HERE.|

Hydrogen car set for tar

11 May 2010 (motoring.iafrica.com)

After dramatically reducing the cost of the technology used in hydrogen fuel-cell cars, Toyota believes it will be able to produce its first hydrogen-powered car within the next five years.

With a sticker of about $50 000 (R377 500), the vehicle that hits the road will still not be cheap, the head of the company's advanced vehicles division has told reporters in California, but it will mark a major step forward in the fight against emissions of greenhouse gases.

And with the price of regular gasoline in Japan rising ¥1.20 to ¥138.70 (R11.14) per litre in the first week of May — increasing for the ninth consecutive week — the breakthrough is likely to be embraced by motorists as well.

Distance versus cost
Yoshihiko Masuda said the first model will be a sedan that has a driving range that is equivalent to a car powered by conventional gasoline, but that it will have "some extra cost."

Toyota has been able to cut production costs to around one-tenth of earlier estimates and aims to further reduce that figure by the time the vehicle goes into commercial production.

"Our target is that we do not lose money with the introduction of the vehicle," Masuda said. "Production costs should be covered within the price of the vehicle."

Costly business
Research into hydrogen vehicles has taken a backseat in comparison to electric vehicles in recent years, primarily because of the costs involved. On top of the production of the vehicles, there is a need to build the associated infrastructure to enable drivers to top up their tanks.

On the plus side, they provide greater range and faster fueling than electric vehicles, while hydrogen is the most abundant element in the universe and the only byproduct of the power plant is water.
Toyota did study the use of a methanol reformer aboard a vehicle in the past as providing methanol to gas stations would be a far easier proposition, company spokesman Paul Nolasco told Relaxnews, but the project was dropped because the equipment required too much space inside the vehicle.

The new vehicle will be based on research projects that are presently underway and utilize compressed hydrogen stored in four high-pressure tanks aboard the vehicle, he said.

As well as Toyota, Honda, General Motors, Hyundai and Daimler are all working on hydrogen fuel cell vehicles and the race is now on to bring the first model to market.

Read the original article HERE.

JHB roads agency to roll out solar power to 50 more intersections

12 May 2010 (www.engineeringnews.co.za)

The Johannesburg Roads Agency (JRA) will roll out solar power to 50 more intersections over the next six months, said CEO Dudu Maseko in Johannesburg on Wednesday.

Speaking to Engineering News Online on the sidelines of the Africa Roads conference, she said eight interchanges were currently powered by solar panels, in a pilot research project to determine the viability of this energy form to power traffic lights.

Traffic lights failed along with the Eskom power supply, causing traffic jams.

Maseko said the Johannesburg council had granted approval for the project to be expanded to 400 intersections, as part of larger trial.

Maseko said the JRA was seeking a research grant from the Development Bank of Southern Africa to determine which products provided the optimal results.

She said it was also feasible for outdoor advertising to pay for some of the costs of the solar project, as it could be displayed between the panels' installations.

Maseko also noted that the JRA has begun a second solar power pilot project in Soweto, where some street names will be lit up using solar power.

Read the original article HERE.

New way to guide a car: With your eyes, not hands

23 April 2009 (news.yahoo.com)

BERLIN – Tired of spinning that steering wheel? Try this: German researchers have developed a new technology that lets drivers steer cars using only their eyes.

Raul Rojas, an artificial intelligence researcher at Berlin's Free University, said Friday that the technology tracks a driver's eye movement and, in turn, steers the car in whatever direction they're looking.

Rojas and his team presented the technology-packed prototype under a clear blue sky at an airport in the German capital.

The Dodge Caravan crisscrossed the tarmac at the abandoned Tempelhof Airport, its driver using his line of sight to control the car. The car's steering wheel was turning as if guided by ghostly hands.

The technology called eyeDriver lets the car drive up to 31 mph (50 kph).

"The next step will be to get it to drive 60 miles per hour," Rojas said.

Ultimately, however, the Mexican-born researcher is aiming for even more: "The biggest challenge is of course to drive in a city with pedestrians and lots of obstacles."

For now, exercises remain relatively simple. The Dodge chases a pedestrian or another car across the tarmac and shows his agility and even drives backward — the driver only has to look into the rear mirror to guide the car.

However, it remains unclear when — or if — the technology will be commercialized as questions about safety and practicability abound: What about looking at a cute girl next to the road for a few seconds? Not to mention taking phone calls or typing a text while driving.

But the researchers have an answer to distracted drivers: "The Spirit of Berlin" is also an autonomous car equipped with GPS navigation, scores of cameras, lasers and scanners that enable it to drive by itself.

"The car can do everything. It can drive autonomously or it can be guided by a driver's eyes," Rojas said. The compromise is a mode that has the car driving on its own, basing its decisions on input from scanners and cameras, and only requires the driver to give guidance at crossroads.

"The car stops at intersections and asks the driver for guidance on which road to take," the researchers say. A few seconds of attention with the driver looking in his desired direction get the car flowing again.

To demonstrate the car's autonomy, Rojas at one point jumped in front of the car — which was at that moment driving at perhaps 10 miles per hour — and the Dodge was immediately stopped by the cameras that had detected the obstacle.

"I was lucky this time," Rojas said jokingly.

While Rojas escaped, driver David Latotzky sat calmly on the passenger seat, wearing a bicycle helmet that is key to the functioning of the EyeDriver: One camera mounted on top of it monitors the street; a second one constantly keeps track of the driver's eyes' movements.

"We chose a bicycle helmet because they're the most ergonomic ones," Rojas said. Selling that technology to customers, however, might be a tough call — it the driver looks like he or she came straight out of a Star Wars movie.|

But if using your eyes for steering seems to tricky anyway, the researchers already have an alternative: Use your iPhone instead. In fall last year they presented a technology that allows to use Apple's smart phone as remote control for the car.

"Autonomous driving systems may considerably change our mobility in the future," Rojas said.
And should the technology-packed vehicle have a major bug, there's still an old fashioned way of stopping it.

Two big external emergency buttons at the rear of the car allow people outside to shut down all systems.

Read the original article HERE.