Hello and welcome to Overdrive, a program about cars and culture. Lets start with the news!
- Sterling Moss Dies (1:21)
- Honda Civic (2:17)
- Flashing LEDs may cut ‘distracted walking’ risk a little bit (3:15)
- LA eases parking rules ‘to aid social distancing’ (4:21)
- University study debunks EV emissions ‘myth’ (5:12)
- UK invests in ‘future transport zones’ (6:08)
- With the passing of the great motor racing driver Sterling Moss we have an extended interview on his life and times, with John Crawford who was a personal friend. (7:11)
- And Rob Fraser and I discuss traveling to the western NSW town of Canowindra (21:57)
Stirling Moss Dies
Motor racing has lost one of its favourite sons who lived the life of the daring, debonair racing driving.
Arguably Britain’s best loved motor racing driving, Sterling Moss has died at the age of 90.
His first professional race was in 1948 when he was 18. He had a monumental crash 1962 and was put in a coma for a month
He won 16 Grand Prix. His success was hampered because he preferred to race British cars, stating, “Better to lose honourably in a British car than win in a foreign one”
Moss was runner-up four times and in third place the other three times.
He won 40% of the races he started in but more impressively he won 56% of the races in when his car did not break down.
Honda Civic continues with a great feature
2018 was a good year of growth from Honda. But in 2019 they staggered and now so far this year they have stumbled.
Honda has had a tough time in 2020 and is now in a tight tussle with Subaru for the nineth spot on sales list in Australia.
For the month of March all their top selling models have declined in sales by more than 20%.
They recently upgraded their civic model including as part of their Honda Sensing platform, a new High Beam Support System.
The great feature they have had for a while, is that when you put your left-hand indicator on it gives you a full camera coverage on the infotainment screen, of your left side black spot with no distorting effect.
Civics are priced from $22,700 to $34,090 plus on road costs.
UK invests in ‘future transport zones’
When, or perhaps if, we get over the Coronavirus will people rush back to the old way of doing things? The UK is looking to a new transport future.
The UK government has pledged the equivalent of $177 million to three ‘future transport zones’ to test new ways of transporting people and goods.
West of England Combined Authority will trial systems to book one journey across multiple modes of transport and autonomous vehicles to transport people between Bristol Airport and the centre of neighbouring city Bath.
Portsmouth and Southampton will also trial options for last-mile deliveries including e-cargo bikes in cities.
The Government is look for consultation on the impact of electric scooters on transport, with safety requirements relating to minimum age, vehicle standards and insurance. It will also consider if local authorities should have extra powers to manage the impact of where e-scooters can be parked.
Flashing light might help distracted walking a little bit.
A lot of road safety attention has been given to distracted drivers. But what about pedestrians who have their heads buried in a mobile phone. Now there is some research testing flashing LED lights.
There are growing concerns about ‘distracted walking’, particularly pedestrian distraction from looking down at mobile phones,”
Flashing LED lights embedded into pavements could improve the safety of pedestrians distracted by their phones, according to the Queensland University of Technology (QUT).
The research compared the reaction times for people on their phones when there was flashing lights in the pavement versus face level lights. They also analysised people just listening to music or voices from their phones
The differences aren’t huge. Reaction time for ground lights (compared to eye level lights) improved by 159 milliseconds for lights one metre away, and 43 milliseconds for lights two metres away.
More work needs to be done.
LA eases parking rules ‘to aid social distancing’
With less traffic on the road but social distancing adding to delays in shops, do we need the same parking restrictions that we had in the past. The Los Angeles mayor doesn’t think so.
Mayor of Los Angeles Eric Garcetti has relaxed parking enforcement across the city as more people are staying at home, but then need more time when they do essential errands. Keeping your distance at the supermarket may add time but social distancing should not be compromised because of concerns about getting a ticket.
The order includes a freeze on parking fine increases for the next 2 months, an extended grace period for people dropping off or picking up groceries and goods and extended payment deadlines.
Enforcement is being maintained on operations that prioritise health, safety and emergency access including street sweeping around encampments, peak-hour restrictions and repaving operations.
University study debunks EV emissions ‘myth’
The debate about the overall effect on pollution of electric vehicles continues. There is now some further research.
Are EVs greener than those powered by fossil fuel, if you consider all emissions from production and electricity generation?
A study by the universities of Radboud in Nijmegen, Netherlands, and Cambridge and Exeter in the UK, shows that use of EVs leads to lower carbon emissions overall – even if electricity generation still involves substantial amounts of fossil fuels.
The consequences of COVID-19 in the huge reduction in local pollution points to the value of reducing the number of vehicles that are using fossil fuels.
If you take climate change out of the equation then the advantage of non-fossils fuels needs only consider local pollution and the benefits are now obvious.
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Originally broadcast 18 April 2020 across Community Broadcasting Association of Australia (CBAA) and Torque Radio affiliated commercial radio channels.
