Could superways work?

Could superways work?

Author
Discussion

revvingit

Original Poster:

444 posts

95 months

Saturday 27th January 2018
quotequote all
Could this system work, keeping current motorways to link between major towns and other minor points with the junctions but building superways between major cities with no junctions to aid commuting between them and take long distance travellers of the motorways, as well as having a unlimited (truly unlimited) speed limit and four lanes either side of a central reservation. They'd be built underground or on elevated bridges and built as straight as possible.

So you could have a super-way from London-Birmingham/Birmingham-Manchester/Manchester-Edingburgh/Edingburgh-London.


Would surely reduce congestion on the motorways and enable goods vehicles/long distance traffic to etc to get around far quicker.

AAGR

918 posts

176 months

Saturday 27th January 2018
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OK, but I think you would be surprised to read the statistics showing just what a small percentage of drivers want to use the entire length of a supposed 'superway'.

No, I can't prove this right now - does anyone else out there have such figures to hand ?

revvingit

Original Poster:

444 posts

95 months

Saturday 27th January 2018
quotequote all
AAGR said:
OK, but I think you would be surprised to read the statistics showing just what a small percentage of drivers want to use the entire length of a supposed 'superway'.

No, I can't prove this right now - does anyone else out there have such figures to hand ?
Maybe they could then have less frequent junctions than motorways, but still enough to encourage use.

Would be interesting to see the figures though.

Some Gump

12,986 posts

201 months

Saturday 27th January 2018
quotequote all
Nope. not only would several muppets reduce your 4 lanes to 2 by being either MLM or MLM+1, but any acccidents become totally crippling on long junctions with no get around.

anonymous-user

69 months

Wednesday 31st January 2018
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Lol and 20 mile long 50 mph average speed cameras with cones but no actual roadworks occuring.

ChrisC-Berks

93 posts

90 months

Wednesday 31st January 2018
quotequote all
Some Gump said:
Nope. not only would several muppets reduce your 4 lanes to 2 by being either MLM or MLM+1, but any acccidents become totally crippling on long junctions with no get around.
This is a big reason in why these wouldn't work. You'd have an accident 10miles from the next junction and suddenly everyone is locked on a road for maybe 70miles or more. Emergency services would struggle to join and you'd have to work out ways of getting emergency traffic on/off the road.

I know the tailbacks on the M4 down by swindon whenever there is an accident as there is nowhere on/off and you're just stuck for miles.

Puggit

49,126 posts

263 months

Thursday 1st February 2018
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But along with superways we could introduce technology where vehicles tag on to one another, ie by a 3m gap. Tech already exists. Then the front vehicle is stuck on cruise control and uses lane guidance. Accident reduction...

Vipers

33,278 posts

243 months

Thursday 1st February 2018
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Puggit said:
But along with superways we could introduce technology where vehicles tag on to one another, ie by a 3m gap. Tech already exists. Then the front vehicle is stuck on cruise control and uses lane guidance. Accident reduction...
How do other vehicles join the convoy?

Puggit

49,126 posts

263 months

Monday 5th February 2018
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Vipers said:
How do other vehicles join the convoy?
By asking the car politely hehehttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oV3nINN2ELQ

Zetec-S

6,466 posts

108 months

Monday 5th February 2018
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What if you need a wee?

Vipers

33,278 posts

243 months

Monday 5th February 2018
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Puggit said:
Vipers said:
How do other vehicles join the convoy?
By asking the car politely hehehttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oV3nINN2ELQ
I think the video is very misleading, not good showing the driver playing on a tablet, and relying on technology to take care of the vehicle, I think they are still in charge of a vehicle and cant be if they arnt paying attention. It says later on in the vid, it looks at the drivers eyes to see if they have not fallen asleep, surely looking down will trigger actions to wake you up.

With a road train, what happens if the lead vehicle pulls out to overtake and pulls in again, do all the vehicles behind it. In my humble opinion.

Personally I think its a waste of time.