The Society of Professional Engineers
(Established 1969)
For the Promotion of the Qualification and Status of the Professional Engineer Worldwide
EFFECTIVE TRANSPORT AND THE FUTURE ENVIRONMENT OF THE UNITED KINGDOM
INTRODUCTION
The past fifty years have seen an ever increasing rate of decline and degradation in many areas of both the once excellent transport facilities and also the most congenial environmental ambience this country has known. This is most regrettable and inexcusable when it is clear that the process stems from man’s own inability to manage these matters with wisdom and foresight but rather to be co-erced by the influences of commercialism. Amongst many others, three of the major causes of this decline are:-
- Regular manipulation (almost always by reduction in real terms) of Treasury Investment for both road and rail infrastructure coupled with deregulation of bus services and the disastrous fragmentation of the railways.
- An insatiable demand on the use of non-replaceable fossil fuels, the calamitous effect of which has still not been recognised sufficiently for the institution of adequate control and corrective action.
- A complete absence of any policy being formulated for combining the particular merits of road and rail transport which would provide an integrated system of complementary functions rather than the present day unbelievable waste of resources.
Some attempts, however, have been made in recent years to make improvements. Certain rail routes have been ‘upgraded’ and new rolling stock/power units introduced; the odd road widening scheme has been carried out though many others have not. These ‘achievements’ were largely by absolute necessity rather than by planned strategy and very little is apparent in the realm of alternative power and the environmental question. The time for new initiatives and technology is now.
A RADICAL SOLUTION.
The whole subject of transport (land-surface in all its forms), use of energy (the most satisfactory type, its production and availability) and waste disposal (resultant emissions and pollutants) must be examined as a single comprehensive study; each aspect being reconciled satisfactorily with all the others before being accepted for inclusion in the overall system.
Clearly, the first stage of such a development must be the establishment of the final objective together with the principles of its modus operandi. This will be an involved and lengthy process requiring input (and agreement) from representatives of many disciplines – technical (in all its branches), financial, legal, social, environmental and public/emergency services and others.
A Commission, set up as an independent (non political) body by the Government, with expertise in all the relevant disciplines involved should be given powers to formulate a clear Policy for comprehensive movement of all land surface transport together with its associated infrastructure. Such a Policy must be designed to cover an adequate period of time albeit allowing for subsequent amendments to accommodate technological advances and it must be given complete security of tenure for that period.
A suggested outline for such a Commission’s Policy Statement on Effective Transport and the Future Environment of the United Kingdom could be;-
“A Comprehensive Policy to combine and unify the general demand for travel independence and convenience with the nationwide assets (existing and restored/reclaimed) of safe, rapid, guided and controlled transport together with the associated infrastructure and employing electric traction or other proven environmentally acceptable means, to be the urgent endeavour of all parties concerned with the future of Transport and the Environment in the United Kingdom. A research and development allocation of time and resource from public funding with absolute security of tenure to be an essential factor of the programme”
IMPLEMENTATION OF THE POLICY.
The process of implementation falls into two clear stages:-
- To establish the intended final concept in comprehensive outline with generous allowances built in to accommodate later refinements and on-going technical developments.
- Devise a programme of transfer from the present situation within a practical range of economic and physical parameters whilst simultaneously inducing impetus to the progressive levels of social (and political) acceptance necessary to attain success.
Both these stages require considerable subdivision with the former being of almost total technical content whilst the latter will combine a great deal of administrative and managerial expertise with applied technology. A broad outline of both stages can be given as follows to illustrate the concept but at this stage, it would be neither appropriate nor possible to embark on any fine detail.
STAGE I : THE FINAL CONCEPT.
In order to combine independence and convenience of individual ‘Mobile Units’ with a safe, rapid and controlled infrastructure, a range of designs of compatible road/rail vehicles to cover the many user requirements and which could be driven independently on public roads for short/moderate distance but which could also be coupled-up into ‘Block Trains’ quickly and simply to undertake the medium/long haul
journeys to country wide locations there to be uncoupled for subsequent onward journeying to individual destinations is perfectly feasible.
A small ‘Buggy’ type vehicle would be introduced in large numbers for the local run-about traffic being a mainly road user Unit. It would, however, also be so designed to enable it to be transported between ‘Assembly Yards’ by a frequent and regular service of ‘Flatroll’ rail wagons thus offering a similar facility of individual and independent mobility at each end of the train journey – particularly useful for commuting or regular short haul business trips.
There is nothing new about these principles but great opportunities have been missed in the past due to indifferent commercial thrust no doubt emanating from political restraint and a consequent lack of funding and research – indeed, one of many factors responsible for the present day strangulation of traffic flow at many strategic locations. Originality for this new concept, therefore, is claimed only in the method of application of the principle of combining the requirement of individual independence of mobility with rapid and safe transit under controlled and disciplined conditions.
THE UNIT VEHICLE.
Leaving the alternative Buggy type vehicle for later discussion, the basic ‘Unit’ of transport would be the purpose built, electrically propelled vehicle capable of normal road use but also equipped with a mechanism to lower flanged wheels for use on rail tracks. This mechanism could be operated by internal controls for the driver’s use and duplicated externally for alternative manipulation as required. A rapid coupling device at front and rear incorporating traction and braking control continuity together with an electrical transmission connection for various purposes would complete the Unit.
In individual road-operating mode, traction power would be taken from the Unit’s battery source but when on rail track, current would be provided by collection from fixed lineside equipment (either by third rail shoe, overhead pantograph or means yet to be designed. This supply would also charge the Unit’s battery en-route. These Units would vary in size and construction to meet multifarious functions – as indeed do present vehicles for both road and rail – but would be designed to conform to a National Load Gauge.
A range of vehicles in this unit-category would be available for local journey employment such as trade deliveries, professional trips, superstore runs, taxis and every day domestic excursions. They would, in fact, rarely engage in their rail facility but would nevertheless be equipped for such a function to ensure complete versatility. These lighter units would be of unpretentious design and restricted to limited rail travel distances as discussed later. Road performance would be governed by battery capability which should provide at least three hundred miles of normal running service per battery charge under typical urban and/or rural conditions including heavy gradient loading. Speeds should be regulated by the inclusion of a sealed ‘limiter’ to ensure that a traffic calming element is built into the design. The speed limiter would be disengaged automatically when the unit was coupled into a block-train formation or in a solo rail performance as discussed later.
The Units as described above would be either privately owned or hired in the early days of the project and would be subject to regular inspection and repair by the regulating Transport Authority which would, in fact, be the owners of the vehicles on hire. Ideally, when the project is fully established, all Units would be the property of the Transport Authority and would be available for either long term lease or short term hire. Short term hire could even include a system whereby single journeys could be made starting at any given point and terminating at any other – similar to present day car rental methods but with much greater flexibility. In this case, the choice of Unit would be appropriate to the journey to be undertaken.
A high proportion of routine daily travel is of a very localised nature and of limited distance. Elaborate and sophisticated vehicles would be quite inappropriate – indeed wasteful – for such use and the ‘Buggy’ type, already referred to would provide for these duties.
THE BUGGY.
The Buggy would be a small wheel based, compact but enclosed, vehicle to carry up to four persons and would have a roof mounted container for hand luggage and parcels. The design would be within specified ‘road area’ limits, the speed strictly controlled by ‘limiters’ – see above – and battery power would provide for a normal range of, say, one hundred miles of travel per battery charge. As for all types of Units, charging facilities would be a feature of all authorised parking bays and indeed a system of local hire could be available to provide a ‘self drive’ taxi service to maximise the use of these vehicles and reduce the wastefulness of empty, stationary vehicles being parked for hours.
THE LARGER UNITS.
At the other end of the Unit range would be the much larger freight carrier capable of long haul (including Continental transportation) journeys with the wide assortment of merchandise currently carried. These vehicles, purpose built to suit their function, would be in rail mounted transit for the major part of their operational time; the road transit movement would be confined between customer depots and rail head yards at each end of each journey. Three variations of this Larger Unit type would be practicable in the early stages though others may develop as necessity demanded:-
- The detachable container for transference from rod trailer to rail flat-roll wagon similar to present day practise.
- The articulated trailer where only the trailer portion becomes rail mounted to form a block-train unit with other trailers; the road power unit would thus proceed to other duties. At the end of their rail journey, the trailers would be detached at their respective destination rail-head yards and delivered to customer depots by waiting road power units either by prior arrangement or ad hoc from a ‘taxi rank’ supply.
- Non articulated units would be totally rail operational in addition to their road capability and would thus be completely coupled and detached in a block-train formation. The driver could travel with the train in passenger accommodation provided or the unit could be met at its rail destination by another driver for forward delivery of the unit.
GENERAL ROAD OPERATION.
Individual operation of all types of units on roads would be similar in principle to present usage but with a much greater degree of control concerning directional movement (ie. at road intersections etc.), speed (ie. overtaking and general traffic calming factors) and vehicle dispersal (parking and stabling). Emergency vehicles, of course, would be special cases for which dispensation would be given as appropriate and in the long term, dedicated carriageways should be set aside for them, particularly in known ‘bottleneck’ situations for their exclusive use.
The opportunity should also be taken as part of this radical scheme to upgrade the roads where necessary and to limit pedestrian infiltration on to carriageways by erecting balustrades, footbridges/subways or signal controlled pedestrian crossings on a much wider scale than at present. This refinement of the project, of course, should be applied to selected areas of known problems whilst elsewhere, an intensified programme of pedestrian education reinforced by increased ‘Jay-walking’ penalties could be resorted to.
As previously mentioned, all stabling points for al types of Units from the Large Carriers to the smallest Buggy must be equipped with battery charging facilities on an automatic, metered payment-on-delivery basis. Whenever a Unit is out of use at its base or left at an authorised parking ‘lot’, it should be connected to the charging equipment which would also act as a time meter, where appropriate, as well as an anti-theft device. Battery charging stations, where fully charged batteries could be exchanged for newly (and totally) discharged batteries, would take the place of existing petrol filling stations and the exchange process need take only one or two minutes to complete given purpose made equipment.
This Project is initially directed at transportation within the United Kingdom as its title suggests but clearly there are implications with travel abroad. It would be hoped that success in this country would encourage the system to spread to foreign parts (and once again the U.K. could claim to be the world leaders in the technology). In the meantime, however, anyone travelling out of the country would need a duel system of power and for this purpose, a petrol driven generator to perform the battery charging function would need to be built into the frame of the Unit making the journey.
INFRASTRUCTURE – RAIL.
In the following discussion on Rail Operation of the project, it will be seen that the existing rail network of this country would be quite inadequate for the new function. Most, if not all, of the lines removed over the past forty years would be required to be reinstated together with a number of new major routes to supplement existing routes which would become overwhelmed. There would have to be a steady reinstatement and upgrading programme of the sadly depleted and even dismantled rail network so that corresponding services could be available to deal with the traffic released from the existing road system.
In many cases, existing roads could be incorporated into the rail network by installing track on the prepared formation of the road, subject to line and level considerations, and this would be one of the major studies which would require early attention. A welcome benefit would be the reduction of the grossly extravagant use of land area in terms of infrastructure requirement employed by present day motorways – which in itself is a major environmental consideration.
RAIL OPERATION – (MULTI-UNITS).
As already outlined, one of the main concepts of this Project is to integrate road and rail using vehicles as dual purpose transport. The function of integration would take place at assembly/dispersal yards located at approximately twenty mile intervals across the country at sites adjacent to through running rail routes and with convenient access by road to areas of habitation, industry, commercial activity or any other relevant function. This would restrict the road user activity of the longer distance traveller and heavy haulier to the short distribution journeys at each end of the errand.
The function at these yards would be similar in concept to that of railway marshalling yards in that train formations would be prepared in a series of sidings and despatched under controlled conditions at high speed to a destination yard. Each siding would be used for assembling Units for a specific destination yard including any intermediate yards en-route and would receive Units of comparable/compatible loads in any number up to the capacity of the siding or weight loading as specified by Regulation. Single Units would be able to conduct themselves by rail as ‘Single Unit Trains’ with their own drivers but would again be under Signal Control within an Operating Path system. Drivers would have to have certificates of competence in rail movements to be permitted to do this and this qualification would be an extension of the normal driving licence.
Purely passenger traffic, whilst following the same routine as above, would be accommodated in exclusive passenger block-train units and run, where practicable, on tracks separate from the pure freight block-train units making necessary many additional route miles of track for the purpose but in the interests of maximising the quality of the services. Again, a single passenger unit could form its own train and be conducted in a similar manner to the freight single unit though this would be more appropriate to the rural situation than the urban one.
A Unit of any size or category, presenting itself at an assembly yard would follow a simple procedure. ‘Registration’ could be prearranged as a form of advanced booking or by reporting directly to the Yard Reception where the Unit’s details would be translated into Siding Allocation and Departure Instructions. Then the Unit would present itself under its own power to a marked site alongside and parallel to the specified siding. The road surface in the yard, being level with the rail top surface in a similar manner to present day level crossings, would make possible a sideways movement of the Unit by means of small diameter ‘castor wheels’. These wheels, housed in the Unit’s underframe, would be hydraulically lowered to carry out this transfer movement and subsequently raised when the flanged wheels, also lowered hydraulically, had been located on the rails. These road and rail wheels would be mounted at each end of a rocker arm which could lower either set as required to surface contact by a hydraulic mechanism. The rail wheels would also be equipped with ‘locating antennae’ to ensure accurate placement of the wheel flanges in the rail flangeways. The castor wheels at this stage would be retracted back into the Unit.
On completion of the assembly of a block-train or at the set departure time, all Units forming the block-train would be closed up together by a Motive Power Unit gently reversing on to the front end of the assembled units. This action would engage all the automatic couplings together with the connections for electrical continuity and power brakes throughout the set.
This Motive Power Unit, provided by the Transport Authority together with the necessary crew, would then have complete control of the block-train and would haul it on its way to each programmed destination yard under normal signalling control. The reverse procedure would be applied at these destination yards whereby a Unit to be detached, on a given signal from the Motive Power Unit, would uncouple itself and ‘side exit’ from the train formation by means of its castors. On completion of all such detachments, the train would close up as described above, recouple and depart on its way to the next destination yard. The detached Units, meanwhile, would retract their castors having first lowered their road wheels then complete their journeys by rod.
At the final destination, the Motive Power Unit would clear the arrival siding and make itself available on a nearby departure siding to repeat the performance with another block-train of Units. The entire system would be powered by electricity the supply and collection of which will undoubtedly be a matter of considerable debate though excellent methods are currently in use and could be adapted to this proposed Scheme.
For rail journeys exceeding half an hour or so, passenger accommodation would normally be provided in the form of a coach with adequate seating to cater for all drivers and passengers in the Units – catering and even sleeping facilities should be available in the case of long and/or overnight journeys.
RAIL OPERATION – (SINGLE UNITS).
In more rural areas where single Units may abound but seldom congregate sufficiently to form block-trains as previously discussed, the facility must be available for such Units to conduct themselves by rail under their own drivership. In this case, the Unit would report to the yard reception and be allocated a ‘Path’ and Time to use the track. The method of rail mounting would be identical to the above detail but in this case the Unit would automatically be power connected to the lineside supply. A signal would indicate to the driver that his route was clear and he would then complete his rail journey under signalled control. Drivers performing these rail driving duties, of course, would be required to qualify as being competent to do so and hold a Driving Licence endorsed to this effect. In this respect, a knowledge of signalling (lineside or otherwise) would be essential but intimate details of ‘route knowledge’ as is required of present day train drivers would not be necessary. All relevant information for the journey would be provided in the form of a ‘tachometer disc’ which, when inserted into the appropriate instrument on board the Unit, would provide recorded verbal data to the driver during the course of the rail journey; this technology could easily be developed and installed.
RAIL OPERATIONS – (FLAT-ROLL WAGON UNITS).
Motor-rail, of some years ago, offered a very useful service connecting a number of widespread destinations whereby road vehicles could be driven on to a train of Flat-roll wagons, transported by rail with their drivers and passengers travelling in comfort elsewhere on the train and then ‘detrained’ at the terminus. This excellent service was discontinued and a golden opportunity for development was missed.
The principle, however, could be revived by the third method of this proposed Project which has virtually the same method of transportation but with a side loading capability as described above together with the rail operations also as set out above. It would only be appropriate for the smaller road Units, of course, and would in due course be phased out as the two primary methods came into full operation.
INFRASTRUCTURE – GENERAL.
In outline form, the ‘moving parts’ of the Project are as set out above and as summarised later though clearly a tremendous amount of research and detail will require close attention to develop the Scheme.
Equally necessary, of course, are the infrastructure details required to enable the vehicles to perform their duties safely and efficiently. Environmental issues also can be addressed in this sector of the project together with the need to anticipate foreseeable – and even unforeseeable – problems such as ‘transport saturation’ and ‘energy supply’.
Railway track, by design, is capable of carrying considerable loads at high speeds in complete safety by virtue of signalling techniques and operating regulations. This proposed Scheme would produce a vast increase of rail movement and many existing trunk routes would need to be duplicated to accommodate the traffic. Many lines would be reserved for ‘freight only’ thus necessitating the provision of supplementary lines for passenger services and vice versa.
Various options are open for this development but the process will be slow and tortuous with all the problems which faced the original railway builders having to be resolved all over again. In the case of restoring those routes which were dismantled with such relish and fervour during the past forty years, the activity would give rise to great poignancy to be off-set, perhaps, by the laying of tracks in miles of obsolescent motorway which could be adapted for the purpose subject to gradient and curvature considerations.
The more secondary and rural roads, of course, would be unsuitable for rail route conversion and would in any case still be required for the local and non-rail short haul and delivery traffic. Public transport and taxis/private hire vehicles will also use the remaining public road system and attention must be given to improving standards of safety and traffic control by directing the public and private transport traffic into separate streams contained in their own carriageways. Emergency vehicles have already been discussed and would be accommodated in this carriageway system.
On the rail routes, many basic standards would benefit from reappraisal whilst such a major and radical change of system is being considered. Such basic matters as track gauge, structure gauge and loading gauge could not be varied, of course, if universality of traffic movement were to be maintained (at least within the U.K. system) but other major factors could clearly be reconsidered in the light of the many technological developments of recent times. These would include such matters as ruling gradients, curvature restrictions and super-elevation standards affecting line speeds, signalling systems and line capacity control amongst many others. Stabling and maintenance would require detailed planning to ensure an economical system of provision and use of motive power and stock. Many of these considerations would apply to both road and rail modes of transport particularly concerning the infrastructure and vehicle design.
Electrification is a key issue in this project since it will exclusively control both rail and road transport throughout the U.K. Also, the infrastructure to provide the necessary supply equipment in all its forms must be a major planning task. The generation of electrical power is not the concern of the Scheme but the two functions – power generation and associated transport – normally involve simultaneous consideration.
Of paramount importance in the study of rail electrification would be the preference of system to adopt from the existing range i.e:- overhead catenary or third (conductor) rail collection, AC or DC current and voltage choice. All of these are available in quantity at present but there could be valid arguments for change or even to devise a completely new system particularly should the system spread to the Continent via the Channel Tunnel.
The other major infrastructure feature of the Scheme would be the Assembly/Dispersal Yard concept. These yards would vary considerably in size and layout according to their location and catchment status. They would largely replace the present day large station complexes though facilities would still be retained for the pedestrian traffic travelling by conventional passenger train and block trains (see below); indeed smaller, intermediate stations would hardly be affected by this new Project in terms of pedestrian traffic.
The Assembly/Dispersal Yards would handle Units as already outlined and would control such operations under sophisticated electronic supervision in the interests of efficiency and accuracy. At peak times and indeed as the volume of traffic flow increased, the Yard function would be to assemble and despatch block-trains – and where appropriate, individual Units – into the running line routes as quickly as the signalling and line capacity could accept them. Similarly, on the reception side, acceptance and disposal would be a finely honed procedure in order to keep the reception sidings constantly available for new arrivals. Where motive power units were in use – which would be in the vast majority of cases, certainly in the early days – the means of access and release to and from particular sidings would be by the caster wheel side movement and road wheel perambulation round the Yard to avoid the need for a complicated permanent way layout. Alternatively, a purpose made ‘fork-lift’ machine could be designed to work in and about the Yard in the case ofan intensively used location.
Another major objective of this Project would be to reduce considerably the commuter problem and Terminal Station syndrome. The location of an Assembly/Dispersal Yard away from a business area would encourage the commuter to arrive in his Buggy and thus continue to his destination along roads now relieved of the larger and heavier vehicles, whilst the individual pedestrian commuter would continue, as before, to arrive at the ‘slimmed down’ Terminal Station. Also, Units forming a block-train, and being of the larger Public Transport type Units, would detach from each other and proceed as road vehicles (each with its own driver) to predetermined destinations. This would effectively eliminate the terminal station congestion problem and also provide greater convenience to the travelling commuter. In reverse, the Public Transport Units would collect passengers from the outlying destinations on a prepared time-table basis and bring them to the terminal station assembly point where a block-train would be coupled up and despatched to appropriate destinations. Similarly, the Buggy Commuters would return home by assembling at the appropriate Yard to be coupled into a block-train for the journey home.
ANOMOLIES.
There are plenty of circumstances and special cases which do not fit easily into this broad outline and which would require individual adaptation to the proposed standards. The most obvious of these are:- commuter control at inner city locations (which has been discussed in broad outline but each location would be a ‘special case’), exceptional and out of gauge loads (current procedures could quite easily be extended to cover these), hazardous substances (again, current procedures could be adapted to cover these) and infrastructure emergencies.
The ‘City Terminal Syndrome’, which is more universal than its name would suggest, is a particularly chronic problem which will intensify unless a fundamental change in business and commercial routine occurs. Mention has been made above of a viable method of dealing with the situation by virtue of the proposed Project. Alternatively, though with much greater difficulty, track should be laid to enable ‘through running’ at these terminals analogically to present day inner city tramways but this would almost certainly be ‘an innovation too far’ for practicality. Nevertheless, in the interests of complete research, all possibilities should be evaluated in the preliminary stages.
STAGE II : TRANSITION.
The transition from the present day transport arrangements to the proposed new fully installed and operating system will indeed be long and fraught with difficulty as is inevitable with the introduction of anything requiring people to change their habits of a lifetime. Consequently, a programme of public education will be necessary concurrently with the preliminary planning but that is beyond the scope of a technical paper. With design matters nearing completion, the challenge will be the smooth introduction of the new infrastructure, its associated equipment and the gradual replacement of the old. Such processes have been practised in most branches of Engineering for a great number of years and this would become just another advancement on the various techniques but would involve much planning and take a long time to complete. Indeed a parallel project example in many respects is the Channel Tunnel which is finally a reality after all these years (two hundred if Napoleon Bonaparte is included) and even now the link to London is not yet complete . . . . but a start has to be made somewhere!
COST AND BENEFIT BALANCE.
This paper is presented as a treatise proposing a major leap forward in transport philosophy encompassing technical principles but without, at this stage, entering into involved technological design. The question of cost and general finance is recognised as being one of the main considerations likely to be a factor but practical feasibility is clearly the fundamental priority which is the present purpose. Let the observation be recorded that whilst the cost of establishing the project as a finalised running entity would be high, there would be many recoveries of assets yielding considerable credits in the process together with credits already held by the Treasury and others from previous recoveries. Furthermore, a fundamental reason for instituting the project would be to replace the present waste, duplication and financial inefficiency with a businesslike, professional and functional undertaking with financial prosperity.
With full integration of all modes of transport, a fairer distribution of charges can be made on a cost per mile/weight basis with supplementary charges for special cases. Clearly the cost increase to the purely road user would be very unpopular (though long overdue in terms of fair competition) but these proceeds would add to the overall funding of the Scheme and would undoubtedly be the most effective measure in producing a transference of traffic from the roads as we know them to the new rail network. It would also illustrate the present imbalance of costings between the existing road and rail infrastructure systems. It is worth mentioning that in the mid 1990’s it cost £170,000 in track access charges to add one coach to the rail network but only £400 Excise Duty plus £600 Fuel Tax to put a coach on the road!
THE ENVIRONMENT.
With this Project in full operation, the environmental benefits would become apparent though the process of recovery would be gradual and prolonged similar to the progress of the Clean Air Act of fifty years ago. There would be an alleviation of noise pollution with the advent of electrically powered road vehicles and there would be a great potential to restore large tracts of land back to an agricultural or agrarian status which would be a factor in the natural ‘water cycle’ and a useful contribution to the ‘global warming’ problem.
There would be a greatly increased demand for electrical power and its distribution resulting from this Project which under present methods of production would aggravate the pollution problem. For various reasons concerning fuels and generating philosophy, however, new thinking will have to find a solution to this problem in the not too distant future but that is a separate issue from the Project under discussion and is, in fact, a matter already identified for urgent research.
CONCLUSIONS.
The purpose and aim of this Project can be summarised as follows:-
- To combine road and rail modes of transport by using duel purpose vehicles (Units) to avoid duplication of resources and use each Unit to its best advantage.
- Universal use of electricity for motive power with innovative methods of supply and distribution.
- Reduction (and possible eventual elimination) of gas, heat, and sound pollution to promote an urgent need for environmental recovery.
- Restore considerable areas of land currently paved with concrete and tarmac to re-establish a state of more natural environment.
- Rationalise the cost of travel and transport for the individual vehicle user and also the commercial transport undertaker.
- Institute a sophisticated method of ‘electronic tagging’ in order to:-
- Monitor traffic flows.
- Have location data of un-roadworthy vehicles.
- Have location data of unauthorised vehicles (unlicensed, stolen etc.).
- Have location data of unauthorised persons driving vehicles.
- Have instantaneous data of road and/or rail accidents.
- Monitor and directly enforce speed regulation and traffic diversion on road vehicles using ‘on-vehicle’ instrumentation and satellite communication.
- Improve overall security and crime prevention.
- To overcome the increasing (and eventually crippling) problem of traffic saturation by rationalising resources whilst retaining the requirement for individual convenience and independence of movement.
M.B.Binks FSE PEng FRSH FIIE MIOSH FIET
Consulting Engineer (Retired)
JAN 2006.