Solar Roadways 4

[cranky108]

One can argue that bikes should be taxed.

However there are three factors (in my mind) that should compose road taxes.
1. a damage factor, to pay for the damage caused on the road. Where most cars, and bikes don't cause very much damage.
2. conjestion factor, to pay for the extra lanes required to carry all the cars on the road. Should be small for each vehicle.
3. Cost to pay for the road to start with. I'm not sure why we need more roads where the conjestion fee would not cover.

Maintenance should go under 1 or 2 above.

Now we would have to add the adminstrative fee for collecting the taxes, which I estimate to be quite high. Or I am paying someone elses share of the first two taxes.

So who collects the solar road energy credits? Is it to reduce damage taxes, or conjection taxes?

 

[beej67]

Why is exempting some cars from road taxes a good thing?

Less smog?

Hydrology, Drainage Analysis, Flood Studies, and Complex Stormwater Litigation for Atlanta and the South East -

http://www.campbellcivil.com

 

[JohnRBaker]

Here in California, owners of 'Zero/Near Zero' emission vehicles can apply for a special decal for their cars which will allow them to drive alone in the HOV or car-pool lanes. While this is a non-monetary incentive it's still there is encourage people to drive low/zero emission vehicles particularly when commuting to and from work. BTW, motorcycles are also allowed in the HOV lanes, again I assume due to their having lower emssions than a normal car.

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[cranky108]

With a motorcycle, there is less trafic conjestion, and in fact you really don't need that extra 10,000 lbs to carry your ego around.
Also with a motorcycle you pay a lot more tax when you buy it (compaired to a small car). And most people don't put very many miles on them, as they would a car.

I would be happer if the roads were smarter, and I had fewer red lights. Has anyone studied the decrease in gas millage because of signel light settings?

 

[JohnRBaker]

I would be happer if the roads were smarter, and I had fewer red lights. Has anyone studied the decrease in gas millage because of signel light settings?

After having driven in the UK on several occasions and therefore becoming familiar with them, I've noticed recently that 'traffic-circles', or 'roundabouts', are starting to show-up here in this country. Now I don't mean the sort of thing one sees in the center of some small quaint village somewhere, but rather regular four-way intersections out in the suburbs. In my old neighborhood back in West Bloomfield, MI several have been built in the last couple of years. Even up in Washington state where my wife used to live there's one right off a busy freeway exit where traffic it being directed to service roads where trucks are making deliveries to businesses and the backside of retail malls. They certainly eliminate traffic signals and if properly understood by the driving public can certainly save gas and keep traffic flowing (I always considered the UK 'roundabouts' as being one of the most civilized things about driving in the UK, once you got past the 'right-hand' drive issue).

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[KENAT]

John R Baker, then you must not have driven in Basingstoke where they got a bit carried away with roundabouts.

Or for that matter on some of the freeway exits/junctions where they install a roundabout, but traffic flow gets so heavy they have to add traffic lights as well - a real mess.

However, used appropriately they do have advantages over 4 way stops and traffic lights.

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[JohnRBaker]

Mostly up near Cambridge, Peterborough. Leicester and Nottingham. But I might have been through Basingstoke since I once spent a weekend in Andover and drove out to Salisbury and Stonehenge.

John R. Baker, P.E.
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[TomDOT]

Properly designed roundabouts* are great. Much higher throughput than a 4-way stop, usually higher throughput than a signalized intersection, most traffic doesn't have to stop, crashes are reduced, and crashes tend to be much less serious (shallow angle rather than the T-bones you see at a conventional intersection.)


*Entering traffic yields to traffic already in the roundabout, there are no added traffic signal lights

 

[cranky108]

The only problem with roundabouts, from the ones I've seen here, is that people don't understand them or the concept of yield. We get a lot of drivers from Calafornia (sp?) and it seems then expect everyone else to yield for them. I've even run some off the road because they expected me to let them in.

And round abouts are so beatuiful with the flowers growing in the middle, and the deer eating them. But truthfuly the roundabouts are better than lights.

 

[TomDOT]

To get back on topic, we could even put the solar panels in the middle of the roundabouts cheaper and with higher output than embedding them in the road

 

[SomptingGuy]

A roundabout on a fast "A" road in the UK makes a great chicane. Racing line in, extra grippy surface to the apex, plenty of space to drift on the exit. All within the speed limit too.

- Steve

 

[KENAT]

Sompting, one memorable bus ride in your neck of the woods (Brighton to Lewes) back from a stag night the Bus drive decided to take the racing line on a roundabout. This actually meant going the wrong way and treating it like a chicane.

The best man tried to tip the driver after that (well and as compensation for our loud renditions of assorted rude rugby etc. songs) - he refused saying 'nah I get paid to do this'.

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[KENAT]

Oh, and I'm pretty sure it was a double decker - I think we were upstairs but I forget for sure.

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[cranky108]

I tried to ride a double decker in Peru, and had to duck for all the phone wires.

In a round about, the middle is sort of wasted space, so solar panels are as good as anything.

Here the round abouts are small, and the locals want to see flowers.

 

[moltenmetal]

The solar roads thing is the biggest piece of dumb-@ssery I've seen in a long time. Even forgetting about the fundamental economics for a second, which is the reason we're going to continue fossil fuels use with gusto, this idea is idiotic. I truly want to see us move to renewables as much as possible, but roads are NOT the place to do that! Road pavement is the very LAST place I would imagine a solar panel that generates more energy than it took to make before it is destroyed! There are so many things wrong with this idea I don't even know where to start. It's a complete non-starter. Roof-mount installations make vastly more sense! For one thing, they're in the urban areas where people are actually using the electricity! When all the roofs are covered, covering parking lots would be the next lowest hanging fruit.

 

[dwallace1971]

But just think of the money you could make if you got the contract to build and replace all of those solar panels$$$$$$$$$

"On the human scale, the laws of Newtonian Physics are non-negotiable"

 

[TomDOT]

Well, they certainly have an effective PR machine. I'm seeing puff pieces on this fantasy pop up all over the place.

 

[dwallace1971]

I think the road to wealth in the future will be to design something of little actual value then convince politicians to mandate its use or to fund its development. Everything else will be regulated out of existence.

"On the human scale, the laws of Newtonian Physics are non-negotiable"

 

[cranky108]

I actually think we should start the solar road thing on under passes. With the over pass above it, it won't be damaged by hail stormes, or UV rays.

 

[JohnRBaker]

Cranky, I hope you were making sarcastic comment since anything done to protect solar cells from hail storms, and particularly UV rays, will almost certainly prevent sunlight from actually reaching the solar cells themselves ;-)

John R. Baker, P.E.
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