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everybody in London is breathing toxic levels of PM2.5 particles. And the fact that the largest sources of PM2.5 particles are tires and brake dust suggests that electrification is at best only a partial answer.
We also have to drive a whole lot less.
Fortunately, London appears to be pursuing an all-of-the-above strategy when it comes to greener transportation, including electric buses to a massive investment in cycle infrastructure, the goal really does appear to be easing gridlock and rethinking how we get from one place to another.
London's cycle superhighways have already shown they can deliver 70% increases in cycling, and now Mayor Sadiq Kahn has announced an entirely new, fourth superhighway bringing segregated lanes to Southeast London for the first time.
Instead of car tire and brake dust, Londoners will be able to inhale healthier bike tire and brake dust.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday October 06 2017, @04:42AM (3 children)
Continuing with the joke...as long as your suspension has enough travel, it's not a big deal to hit the speed bumps at high speed. Suspensions are designed to be high pass filters. Watch motocross motorcycles sometime, with about 300mm (1 foot) of suspension travel the wheels move up and down while the riders get a pretty decent ride over very rough surfaces.
Of course if you don't have enough bump travel, you bottom out the spring (or damper/strut) and break suspension parts.
No longer joking...the reasonable speed is often defined by the local residents who live along that road.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday October 06 2017, @06:01AM (2 children)
My suspension couldn't quite manage. I had a 2001 VW Passat with the USA ride height. (the 2001 Passat rides lower in the EU, via different springs)
So I would often get a weird THUMP from not having enough travel. The trick with the brakes would avoid the problem if I got the timing right. Briefly slam the brakes hard to make the car nosedive, then it rebounds to get over the speedbump.
I never broke any suspension parts. I broke some engine mounts, causing my engine to be supported on the transmission. That may have caused my transmission issues. I broke two oil pans, but at least one of those was partly due to an underinflated tire. I knocked my left headlight clear off of the vehicle. I should have stopped to grab it, but I mistook it for random trash.
Now I have an E350 Econoline van which handles speedbumps decently. I guess riding in the back seat could get wild. There is lots of clearance. My van looks like this:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Ford_E-Series_wagon.jpg [wikipedia.org]
Local residents often get to define the speed limit. Because of their understandable bias, they will not choose anything reasonable. There are people living on US highways; they might like the speed limit set to 5 MPH (8 KPH) so that their kids can play unattended in the road. Fortunately we don't let things get that extreme, but it is pretty normal for speed limits to be half of what is reasonable. The same people who want 5 MPH on **their** street may be speeding on other people's streets. I'm at least not a hypocrite; I speed on my own street too.
(Score: 1, Touché) by Anonymous Coward on Friday October 06 2017, @07:06AM (1 child)
facepalm.
You know you were modded funny because we thought you were joking, right?
You even included little "hints": like driving at an unsafe speed in a residential area (45 MPH (72 KPH)), and continuing to do so after you broke your car "In the process I have broken two oil pans (underinflated tire)"
By you own admission, you were having single-vehicle collisions with the ground. Here I thought I was talented doing that on my bike (folded wheel on level ground by counter-steering after a pedal strike).
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday October 06 2017, @08:55AM
Part of the street has houses with lawns. There is seldom much near the road. Cars are not parked along the road. There are no bushes near the road. Visibility is great.
Part of the street has fenced backyards on one side, with 20 feet of flat sand and grass between that and the road. On the other side, there is 100 feet of grass and then a fence for a school. (yes this is a silly school zone -- as if hitting kids anywhere else would be different) Normally there is nothing anywhere near the road.
My eyes and ears and hands work, and I dedicate them all to driving. There is plenty of space; the situation beats some interstate highways. https://goo.gl/maps/heBgaHJUd5S2 [goo.gl]
Oh, BTW, my wife reminds me that one of the broken oil pans was her fault, at lower speeds. (so for me just 1 oil pan, 3 motor mounts, and 1 headlight)
And no, I didn't know anybody thought I was joking. I figure it is kind of funny that I would stubbornly persist with the car damage.