Advanced Driving Hub

One of the perverse things is that you need have only one eye as long as it can read a number plate. IMHO binocular vision is essential for driving.

Triquet wrote:IMHO binocular vision is essential for driving.

It's not. Helpful, perhaps, but not important.

Triquet wrote:http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3672935/Axe-T-junctions-mini-roundabouts-elderly-driving-Calls-roads-redesigned-accessible-nation-s-ageing-population.html

"Experts warned that large numbers of pensioners were being put off driving by roads designed for ‘use by fit, middle-aged motorists'."

I don't see a problem with that. My only worry is, those who should be put off the most are probably put off the least.

Are people objecting because the proposals are unsafe. Or because they think safe responsible driving is an on/off switch.

As a general principle, I don't see a major problem if road design includes accommodating an elderly population.

I think it is about dealing with symptoms rather than the root cause...
So if someone has cancer you give them aspirin to deal with the headaches, but not as the solution, as pallative care, still dealing with the cancer...

So, here, yes it makes sense to design around the needs of the elderly, but not as the solution, only when doing so gives additional benefits without negatives... If though in doing so you are simply covering up a greater issue (drivers who are not driving at an acceptable level) then that is like giving a cancer patient an aspirin and pretending that there is nothing wrong with them because the symptoms have been dealt with...

If there is an issue that those in one section of the driving population are finding it difficult to cope with our roads, is the answer really to change the roads, or to deal with the underlying issue of that demographic? If there are changes which can be made which have no negative side-effects then by all means make those changes, and if that fixes the issue then the patient simply had a headache and the aspirin worked, but if there is a deeper underlying problem of an aging population no longer able to fully cope with driving to the expected standard, then it is a deeper issue which needs tackling...

We live in a society where politicians and commerce drive the country based on c. 5 year cycles which favour short-term symptom management rather than long-term fixing of the underlying issues...

Alasdair

Give it a few more years and then they can have autonomous cars. Will mean no more dithering in the NSLs too; the car will decide what's a safe speed

Probably needs a new thread . . . But if an autonomous car dithers in a NSL, are we in any way capable of making a 'better' decision?

Assumptions:
- Auton. cars at least as safe as a 'good' driver
- If auton. cars do take to the road, everyone else is allowed to share the roads
- Auton. cars won't have sub-NSL max. speeds

Autonomous cars digression split here...
viewtopic.php?f=2&t=370

Triquet wrote:One of the perverse things is that you need have only one eye as long as it can read a number plate. IMHO binocular vision is essential for driving.

Yes, absolutely right. Fortunately I don't drive.

jont- wrote:Autonomous cars digression split here...
viewtopic.php?f=2&t=370

Thanks! I was going to do it when on a proper keyboard rather than tablet.