Posts by stuart ward

DfT rounds up Road-Pricing 2.0 contractors

Fuel pricing won't work

Whilst the idea of fuel pricing is attractive to control vehicle journeys the reality is the biggest fuel users are essential such as delivery lorries/ buses/taxi's etc. So it will just raise everyday prices for everyone.

Also note what happened when diesil hit 1.30/litre. Theft went through the roof around here.

So to reduce congestion make public transport attractive with joined up thinking. Buses that meet up with trains . Bus/ train routes that are affordable to use. For me to go to Leeds and back from Wolverhampton costs £45 about the same as the diesil in a car. For 4 of us to go to leeds costs 4 times as much by train but the same by car.

Work from home more. That will be the best solution but this means company management accepting differing work practices.

Road charging, the sequel - Kelly unveils 'wired m-way' plans

re; OMFG!

I actually drive over the section of M42 with active management nearly every day.

It does work, most of the time the hard shoulder is just that, it only becomes an extra lane at busy times. 8-9 ish 4.30-5.30. It's very rare to see a broken down vehicle in the refuge areas. But even if they made it to the hard shoulder/4 th lane the operators could close it to protect the occupants. Same as if you break down in the inside lane elsewhere, people get round you.

Rather than move the bridge abutments the extra lane stops at a junction and starts again the other side so people who are getting off at that junction use it but traffic going beyond has to use 1/2/3. It makes integration of entry slip roads easier as well, think of it as a 3 mile long entry and exit slip road.

Just wish they would do it from J1 - 3a. fed up of queues for no reason there.

I also heard they have just switched on the average speed cameras on the ganties with a 2mp trigger point. Don't know how true that is, but it's certainly slowed people down.

Germany flicks off-switch on DAB

DAB & Digital tv

I actually have a DAB radio in my car (peugeot RT4 standard fit) but it has no convincing reason for DAB. The only way I noticed was the scrolling banner on the dashboard display , really annoying catching it out of the corner of your eye, otherwise it's a radio to listen to. So what's new? Don't listen to the radio except in the car so won't buy a DAB radio.

I also have digital TV in my house, Freeview and SKY, just for the range of channels available mainly. Still can't find anything worth watching sometimes from 100's of channels. The digital wizzardry doesn't mean a lot to me except for the electronic program guide which saves the hassle of going to teletext and selecting page 120 or 606.

So remind me again , apart from making loads of dosh for the goverment from selling the frequency, why are we switching to digital?

Japan scores ballistic missile shootdown bullseye

so what about the 45 mins

I note Spain has aquired this technology, I wouldn't have thought they would be within SCUD range of anyone capable of launching such devices who was hostile. Do they know something we don't?

If so why haven't we bought it if Tony was right about the 45 minute warning?