One of my Christmas presents was a bumper book of articles from the L&L magazine, which readers of a certain age will remember.
Laughed like a drain at the above article near the back of the book.
Describing the transport of the city of the future says:-
"here is the terminus for passenger-bus-trains, individual passenger vehicles and VTOL aircraft. From here too, incoming motorists are directed by radio to areas where parking is available ." Now for the funny bit "A control system regulates all incoming traffic reducing congestion to a minimum"
The heady optimism of the late 60s eh ?
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If you want a good larf, I'll lend you a book from the '70s called "Land Transport Tomorrow"
Very like a serious version of the Jetsons.
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>>"A control system regulates all incoming traffic reducing congestion to a minimum">>
Not heady optimism!
Realistic and could be achieved, its just that the powers-at-be use the technology to achieve the opposite. Mis-placed speed cameras, mis-phased traffic lights etc etc.
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Re a control system........
In Auckland, where controls have just begun to be used to overcome bad design [ like 6 motorway on-ramps in a couple of miles ] the powers who think they be made the very logical decision that the easiest way to prevent motorway traffic jams was to stop traffic joining. This being politically unacceptable, they put traffic lights at the on-ramps which allow 1 or 2 vehicles per green to escape on to the motorway. Works well for the motorway, but has resulted in utter tailback chaos in the surrounding streets.
The Second Law of Thermodynamics strikes again { Entropy, alias disorder , always increases}.
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Kiwi Gary,
When I was back home last year (NZ that is), these on-ramp lights really threw me!
I was about to join the southern motorway (Manukau from memory? I might be wrong) and there they were - traffic lights. What that must do to the surrounding streets of southern Auckland during rush hour is unbelievable...
Good to see another Kiwi on the forum.
Cheers,
Matt
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Welcome to the Kiwis. Good to see that your team made it to the 2007 Rugby World Cup quarter finals.
I am old enough to remember when Rover produced its gas turbine car (misleadingly registered as JET 1), we were told that this was the future; in years to come all cars would be like this.
What has happened? Basic priciples - nothing. Most people are still driving around in internal comustion, petrol powered - for the most part - engines.
The Rover is in a museum, the only one of its kind.
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Hey, not quite I think drbe... a later version of that JET1 car, very similar in appearance like a long-tailed Rover 75 two-seater cabriolet, was raced at Le Mans, and later still there was a Rover gas turbine Le Mans racer with all-enveloping bodywork and, I think, four wheel drive... one of those was crashed I think.
They could go quite fast but the engine characteristics were unsuited to racing and I believe the things were very thirsty. Or am I imagining it all?
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You're not imagining it Lud, well not the gas turbine anyway! Drank like the proverbial. Didn't BRM try a gas turbine engine? I seem to recall Graham Hill as the test driver.
JH
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en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gas_turbine
More information here.
And a photo of what is still a very handsome car that seems to have matured over the years into something that wouldn't look out of place on 2008's roads.
www.makingthemodernworld.org.uk/icons_of_invention.../
Edited by Pugugly {P} on 02/01/2008 at 19:47
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Cars should be egg-shaped, plastic, driverless and ownerless. They should follow wires buried in the road in efficient accordance with destination coordinates punched in by the passengers at the beginning of the journey. They should be uncrashable and in any case never ever going fast enough to cause serious injury except in freak instances - say 22 mph on urban main roads, less on minor ones. Motive power should be a tiny ceramic turbine about the size of a coffee mug, running on a sip of hydrogen, turning at 100,000 rpm with a distant whistle. Once in the vehicle, passengers can swivel their seats round and watch movies, play poker, take drugs, read, drink or sleep while these tedious devices do their slavework. Longer journeys should be by 300mph train.
Or such was my nightmare vision of the 21st century in my only published piece of fiction, published in a small-but-hip literary magazine in the early 70s (I think). Not sure, mind you, that the reality isn't even worse. We still have proper cars but it's thought increasingly wicked to get any fun out of them. And the dingoes and carphounds snap at your heels ever more closely.
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"We still have proper cars but it's thought increasingly wicked to get any fun out of them. And the dingoes and carphounds snap at your heels ever more closely. "
Bravo Lud !.................. well said, brilliant !
If you ever think about coming out of retirement, could I ask you to apply for "Minister of Transport " please ! ;-)
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There's a good review of the turbine powered Chrysler Turbine in the Jan '08 edition of Classic & Sports Car magazine.
It idled at 22,000rpm with max rpm over twice that. It produced 130bhp and 425lb ft of torque at stall speed.
"They would run on anything from peanut oil to Chanel #5.. The President of Mexico ran his on Tequila.."
Kevin...
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We have motorway on-ramp traffic lights in the UK too. I know they are on some M60 junctions to aid the m-way flow at peak hours and they seem to work, in that the queue on the slip road is no worse than it was before the lights were installed.
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GERMAN CARS FOR £56
Herr Hitler has given orders for the
manufacture of a four-seater car which
is to cost no more than ^56 at the present
rate of exchange.
Cars of this kind are to be produced
by hundreds of thousands by 25,000
employees in the new Gorman Detroit,
and before long it is expected that
millions of working people in Germany
will own cars.
The capital for the huge undertaking
is supplied by the Nazi trade union; and
private manufacturers in Germany will
soon be in competition with the State
Wow a contemporary report on the first VW from a 1936 edition of the Children's Newspaper on the Look and Learn site.....its a pretty good site for boys of any age.
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A brand new, authentic original rat look, 1200 or even 1100cc original VW for 56 quid eh.... Would have seemed a terrific bargain even at the time (and of course a Beetle was a better car than any popular, cheapo carp produced here then or for another 20 years).
Of course the Third Reich only lasted 12 years, nearly half of them in deep war doodoo, so the Germans didn't get 56 quid Beetles in any numbers until the fifties or so, by which time the price had gone up a bit.
Makes you wonder a bit about the outlook of the suits running the Children's Newspaper though. I liked the title but never liked the paper much when I was a child. Patronising of course and a bit silly.
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