Road safety. Is the message too harsh?

Last week I attended the 8th Australian Road Engineering and Maintenance conference in Melbourne. It was a very interesting conference with two different streams: Road Engineering and Road Maintenance. My interest was mainly with the Road Engineering papers and presentations which were mostly about road safety and street/urban design.

There were presentations about new devices that can enhance road safety like the BarrierGuard steel road safety barrier by Boylan Group that was presented in a crash demonstration at Sundown racecourse. 

Mike Dreznes, Executive Vice President of the International Road Federation presented a paper on forgiving highways using some very graphic images of crash victims. I must say that I couldn't keep my eyes in his presentation as these images were too disturbing for me. This is the second time that such images are used at a conference that I attend, in a very short time. Last time at AITPM conference in Sydney Ron Delezio presented crying, his own hard to believe family drama . This was an even more powerful and very emotional presentation. 

I always thought that such harsh images and information campaigns based on them don't have much success influencing people behavior because people tend to disassociate from them. The human brain tends as a protection measure to think that such crashes and injuries will not happen to me because I am different than the person in this campaign. I am younger or older, I don't drive or I don't walk, I have a better car, I don't drive at that time of the day or any other excuse. A colleague from ARRB mentioned that there is research that shows that such messages have a good outcome in some countries like Australia and Ireland but not that good in other countries like England. 

Personally, I prefer a different approach in road safety campaigns. More clever, indirect messages that don't make the viewer turn his/her head the other way. Campaigns like this one for drinking and driving:

or this very clever road side billboard that changes when it's raining.

The use of positive images seems to me a more effective way to promote road safety. Role models for young people like Karl Lagerfeld or Michael Schumacher are used to reach different target audiences hence they take different approaches.

 

But the reality is that unless we start promoting sustainable transport, more safe modes of transport like walking and cycling, road crashes would be high resulting in deaths and serious injuries and bringing much grief to people. 

Heavy Traffic

Everybody's been a long time talking
Ain't nobody said a word that's true
Ain't it time to stop this crap type talking
Won't you tell us what you're gonna do

Tell you what, why don't we break this pattern?
Tell you what, why don't we do some do?
All together we can make it happen
Untogether and we won't get through

Wanna drive, yeah drive
I wanna drive but I can't get nowhere
Heavy traffic all over this town
I wanna drive, yeah drive
I wanna drive, I gotta get somewhere
Heavy traffic is bringing me down.

Every time I see the red light burning
Don't it always make the air turn blue
But until we see the red light turning
There ain't nothing anyone can do

We all dream about an open highway
Making dreams is all that we can do
We'd be moving on if I had my way
Nothing can stop me getting back to you

Wanna drive, yeah drive
I wanna drive but I can't get nowhere
Heavy traffic all over this town
I wanna drive, yeah drive
I wanna drive, I gotta get somewhere
Heavy traffic coming into this town

I wanna drive, yeah drive
I wanna drive but I can't get nowhere
Heavy traffic all over this town
I wanna drive, yeah drive
I wanna drive, I gotta get somewhere
Heavy traffic is bringing me down
Heavy traffic all over this town

Heavy traffic all over this town

Heavy traffic coming into this town

Written by Rossi/Young/Edwards - Performed by Status Quo

Famous traffic engineers and transport planners.

I was wondering the other day if there are any traffic engineers or transportation planners that are considered famous. And when I say famous I mean well known among the general public and not only among our profession and scientific community. While I tried really hard to think of someone, no one came to mind and I felt a little embarrassed as if I hadn’t done my homework properly. But then I asked the same question in two different relative LinkedIn groups. And while there was some name dropping none of these could really qualify as being famous or well known. Actually I doubt that if I asked 10 different colleagues about those names if I would get even one recognized unanimously.

Even the fictional ones are not that famous.

When trying to find people that are famous for other reasons but who still come from a traffic/transport engineering background, the only name that came up was that of the Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad who apparently at some point in his life studied civil/traffic engineering.

So why is it that although world has some famous architects like Frank Lloyd Wright, Mies van de Rohe, Frank Gehry or Zaha Hadid just to name a few, doesn’t have famous traffic engineers? Why do we have famous economists like Adam Smith, Karl Marx. John Keynes or Milton Friedman and we don’t know of any transport planners? 

And if for doctors it is quite reasonable to know so many because of all these diseases named after them why is it that we don’t know who designed the first tram system? Or the inventor of Bus Rapid Transit? Why the bridges aren’t named after their designer?

Actually this last part may not be absolutely true as in Brisbane we have the Walter Taylor Bridge designed and constructed by WalterTaylor who was an engineer and builder. 

Source:State Library of Queensland and John Oxley Library

Heavy vehicle transport. More than a kid's dream.

When I was a kid I wanted to be a truck driver when I grew up. But no just any truck driver. I wanted to drive these huge American cab type semi trailers that I saw in the movies and looked so impressive. 

I used to imagine driving across USA in such a truck enjoying the Route 66 scenery. I didn't care too much for the European type Cab Over Engine (flat nose) truck or for routes through German Autobahns and urban traffic. 

Source: Dave Johnson from Arroyo Grande, Ca., U.S.

Back then, the only thing I knew about Australian trucks were the road trains operating in the outback and I couldn't  imagine that one day I would be working with the heavy vehicle industry here. Australia is in fact one of the leading countries in heavy and long vehicles. Multi combination trucks operating not only in the Australian desert but also in the major cities connecting very important nodes and achieving great results in terms of freight transport and overall productivity.

Apart from the regular semi trailer (19 m long with a mass limit of 42.5 t) that can move freely in almost every road in Australia without the need for a special permit, there is a range of longer, heavier vehicles with far greater carrying capacity. B-doubles (B-trains) are up to 25 m long vehicles with a mass limit of up to 68 t operating for more than 25 years in Australia.

Source: VicRoads

B-double - Port of Brisbane

B-doubles have many positive aspects. They are highly efficient vehicles that reduce total lane occupation and  accident exposure. They contribute to reduced heavy vehicle exhaust and noise emissions by performing the same freight task with fewer trucks. B-doubles can carry 160% of the payload of semitrailers so two B-doubles carry the payload of three semitrailers, reducing the number of trips and traffic volume required to move the same amount of freight.  This results in less road wear and reduced congestion, and increased efficiency savings for industries, communities and the economy.  B-doubles also have less impact per tonne of payload carried, saving 32% of the road wear costs that would be associated with semitrailers performing the same freight task.  They have better safety and handling performance, confirmed by accident statistics which show they are under-represented in heavy vehicle crashes and they generate less air and noise pollution.

But there are also bigger vehicles traveling mainly in Australian highways and industrial streets. These vehicles that exceed 25 m of length operate under the Performance Based Standards (PBS) Scheme, that provides heavy vehicle industry additional opportunities to innovate. This results in improved productivity for a given freight task, safer performance and the least possible effects on roads and bridges. The scheme focuses on how well the vehicle behaves on the road, rather than how big and heavy (length and mass) it is, through a set of safety and infrastructure protection standards. 

The main types of PBS vehicles are super B-doubles that are up to 30 m long and with a total mass of up to 108 t

Port of Brisbane

... and the A-double, a very basic multiple combination with two semitrailers linked by a converter dolly between the two trailers. A-doubles are up to 30 m long. 

Port of Brisbane

The following image shows the difference between these two types of train configuration.

Source

For many years I wan an advocate of rail freight transport.and I still believe that for trunk routes it is more environmental friendly and sustainable. But road freight transport is a more flexible alternative that can present an innovative solution especially in the last mile problem. If the drivers are properly trained and educated the perception of general public towards these vehicles might change.

Street Life

I still hang around...
Neither lost, nor found.
Hear the lonely sound,
of music in the night,
Nights are always bright...

Thats all thats left for me..

I play the street life,
Because there's no place I can go
Street life, And it's the only life I know
Street life, And there's a thousand parts to play
Street life, Until you play your life away

You let the people see
Just who you want to be
And every night you shine
just like a super star
That's how the life is played
A ten cent Masquerade
You dress, and walk, and talk
you're who you think you are...

Street life, You can run away from time
Street life, For a nickel, or a dime
Street life, But you better not get old
Street life, Or you're gonna feel the cold

There's always love for sale
A grown-up fairy tale
Prince charming always smiles
behind a silver spoon
And if you keep it young
Your song is always sung
Your love will pay your way
beneath the silver moon

Street life. Street life. Street life. Street life...

The Crusaders and Randy Crawford
(1979-Will Jennings, Joe Sample)

Free public transport. Efficient and fun.

More and more cities choose to provide some short of free public transport service. Just yesterday we went on a night trip on our own City Hopper. It is a free ferry service running every 30 minutes from early in the morning until midnight along the central part of the Brisbane river. All this time in Brisbane I hadn't had the chance to see the city from this point of view and I have to say that I found out that it is an amazing view. Especially passing under the Story Bridge with the lights on and looking at the high rise buildings in front, is one of the best views of the city.

Christmas travel.

With the Christmas just around the corner it's always a time of traditional celebrations but also a time for a review of the year that it is about to leave us. The other day at the office we were asked to decorate our desks with traditional but also international Christmas themes. Being in transport, I couldn't choose anything else than the old Greek Christmas tradition of decorating a miniature boat.

Way before the tradition of decorating a Christmas tree, children in Greek islands used to decorate a miniature ship with small miniature flags and other ornaments, usually a replica of the ones that they saw every day in their islands . They took these miniatures boats out in their Christmas carol runs and they served as trays for the gifts they received from the houses they visit. Mandarins, oranges, nuts and almonds, traditional sweets like loukoumia, kourambiedes or melomakarona were their reward for singing the carols and their decorated boats were filled with them.

Children in Naxos island, Greece singing carols with tzabouna and doubaki, magazine “NAXIAKA” 16, 1987, p. 18 (photo Ν. Kefalliniadis)

It seems that it is not accurate that these decorated boat was the centre of the  Christmas house decoration even though the modern Christmas tree was not known in Greece before 1833 that King Otto brought this tradition from western Europe. The houses were decorated during Christmas with different things like green branches as a symbol of hope for the upcoming spring or a big wild onion as a symbol of  fertility and euphoria. But the symbolism behind the decorated boat was different: It was not just a welcome and an homage to their sailor fathers that returned home for the holidays but also a symbol of a float to a new and better life.

This symbolic ship symbolises for me and my family our transition to Australia and the start of a new more promising life. And this first year was exactly that: promising and full of adventures, challenges and simple every day life pleasures. I hope that this Christmas boat is also symbolic for my place of birth: It will show the way out of the economic and social crisis and into a bright future that Greek people deserve.

Nikiphoros Lytras (1832–1904) 

I wish all my friends, colleagues at work and readers of this blog merry Christmas and happy new year. May you find in life your decorated little boat that will travel you in friendly water and safely to the desired destination.

Peace and freedom to you all.