Better Roads Digital Magazine
Issue link: https://read.dmtmag.com/i/119545
RoadWorks Pitching Concrete A British firm has developed a tent of a flexible canvas material that, when saturated before it is inflated or hosed down after it���s pitched (by just two people), hardens into concrete. So you pitch a canvas tent and 24 hours later it���s a concrete building. The company was apparently inspired by the way casts are placed on broken bones, wetted and then harden. While it may have been designed primarily for military purposes, the most valuable way to use it might be to house people displaced into horrible conditions by natural disasters. The shelter comes delivered flatpacked in airtight and water- and rotproof plastic sacks. Blow it up with an electric fan, then hose it down and wait. Not much good for camping of course because once the Concrete Canvas Shelter is up and set, well it would take some serious demolition equipment to get it down. v Wireless Safety Model Testing T he University of Michigan Transportation Research Institute (UMTRI) has been awarded a $14.9 million contract from the U.S. Department of Transportation to conduct a safety pilot model deployment of Vehicle-to-Vehicle (V2V) and Vehicle-to-Infrastructure (V2I) safety applications. The 30-month program will establish a real-world, multimodal test site in Ann Arbor, Mich., for enabling wireless communications among vehicles and roadside equipment for use in generating data to enable safety applications. Passenger cars, A commercial trucks, and transit buses will be included that are equipped with a mix of integrated, retrofit, and aftermarket V2V and V2I-based safety systems, a technology that could prevent thousands of crashes. The data generated will be used for estimating safety benefits in support of future decisions by the U.S. DOT, as well as for use by the broader transportation industry in developing additional safety, mobility, and environmental applications using wireless technologies. The testing phase will last a year and include approximately 2,850 vehicles. v STOP signs or traffic lights? re traffic lights always preferable to stop signs? It���s not a new debate, and this time it���s a suburb in Brooklyn, N.Y., that is raising the issue. It seems cars speed through residential streets in Boerum Hill and now some locals believe that traffic lights bear a major part of the blame as they encourage drivers to race between streets to make green lights. And by extension speed up to get through orange lights to make the next green. Stop signs they say would be a better, safer, alternative. Speed bumps and ���slow zones��� are being tossed into this one. We���re not talking the major thoroughfares, but the adjacent residential streets. I haven���t seen much research data on this ��� if you know of any let me know ��� but it would seem that the answer ���Because of its shortcomings ��� driving will vary with the situation. Nonetheless, it wouldn���t range, cost and recharging time ��� the hurt to have authorities and citizens approach the electric vehicle is not a viable replacement question of their neighborhood with some studies to for most conventional cars. We need help them solve the problem. The Boerum Hill desomething entirely new.��� bate feels like both sides are starting out with nothing except good will and their own experience to get the problem solved. I���m not suggesting a ��� Takeshi Uchiyamada, the ���father of the Prius,��� computer-generated answer with minimal public on why fuel-cell vehicles hold far more promise input, far from it, but without some decent data than battery electric cars. the decision might end up being something of an educated, and experimental, guess. v SayWhat? 8 April 2013 Better Roads Roadworks_BR0413.indd 8 4/1/13 2:04 PM