Beware the stroad!

[LanghamP]

1 hour ago, Circuitmage said:

Also, given the right of way by a car stopping in traffic (WTF!?!?!) or waving me to go in front of them, I do not. I ride around them or wait for them to get out of the road.

From what I've observed with Tesla's semi self driving cars, and the prototype self-driving cars, none of them try to go around stopped cars in front of them.

In contrast, drivers following a stopping car (for example, stopping for pedestrians in a non-intersectional crosswalk) with few exceptions go around the stopped car. The discomfort of braking and losing time apparently outweighs the pedestrian's well-being.

[Circuitmage]

Yeah, not looking forward to our automated future. Reliance on automated controls is already causing Boeing Max 737 crashes.

So, what happens with self driving cars , at night, with no moon, in pitch black, and someone is wearing completely black? Or are the cars not going to be driving at night?

Having some functions (like automated braking) or EUC balancing, with drivers otherwise in control is OK. But complete automation that can override decision making...very risky. 

 

Edited May 30, 2019 by Circuitmage

[LanghamP]

15 hours ago, Circuitmage said:

So, what happens with self driving cars , at night, with no moon, in pitch black, and someone is wearing completely black? Or are the cars not going to be driving at night?

I wasn't concerned with self driving cars, thinking surely anything AI would be better than the malicious or indifferent drivers we presently have on the road until I saw this Tesla ad...

Of course we'll have self driving cars circling the block, as slow as possible, because we have neither street space nor parking space. While this is convenient to the early adopters, it will be devastating to car society as a whole. Let's actually do the numbers...

Private cars get utilized under 5% of the time, whereas taxis get utilized maybe 30-40% of the time. Uber and Lyft drivers spend an awful lot of time idling at my local park, usually between 20-40 of them. Let's combine extremely cheap electricity (high efficiency solar panels) with self driving cars, and of course we'll eventually have many AI clogging our streets.

NPR finally did a story recently about what everyone realized years ago.

https://www.npr.org/2019/05/28/727459993/why-its-time-to-think-about-self-driving-cars-in-regards-to-parking

However, I'm a bit more optimistic than most critics, because I ride a bicycle and see the two biggest dangers (a driver killing me and the car's engine poisoning me) being greatly reduced with electric AI cars. In contrast the angry driver texting on her cell phone while speeding in a huge SUV is far more dangerous.

[LanghamP]

This deadly crash occured recently (the dead bicyclist is on the right side of the screen), and it shows a few important things we need to be aware of.

First, it occurs on a stroad, on multiple highway wide lanes. Drivers go fast on the highway, between 55-80 mph. The drivers above were probably doing 40-50 mph, but only because there's a speed limit.

Note that the street poles have yellow break away bases. That means DOT has ascertained the chance of collision is high enough and strong enough that breakaway poles are mandated in order to lesson driver deaths.

This is a typical full body crush when a car versus bicycle collision occurs; a helmet doesn't help a lot.

The takeaway is that stroad are extremely dangerous to everyone, don't save a lot of time due to red lights, and the red lights (intersections) means collisions are really bad.

[Darrell Wesh]

2 hours ago, LanghamP said:

This deadly crash occured recently (the dead bicyclist is on the right side of the screen), and it shows a few important things we need to be aware of.

First, it occurs on a stroad, on multiple highway wide lanes. Drivers go fast on the highway, between 55-80 mph. The drivers above were probably doing 40-50 mph, but only because there's a speed limit.

Note that the street poles have yellow break away bases. That means DOT has ascertained the chance of collision is high enough and strong enough that breakaway poles are mandated in order to lesson driver deaths.

This is a typical full body crush when a car versus bicycle collision occurs; a helmet doesn't help a lot.

The takeaway is that stroad are extremely dangerous to everyone, don't save a lot of time due to red lights, and the red lights (intersections) means collisions are really bad.

That’s sad. Something you’d see on Final Destination. Death wanted him dead for some reason. 

[LanghamP]

11 minutes ago, Darrell Wesh said:

That’s sad. Something you’d see on Final Destination. Death wanted him dead for some reason. 

This is very close to the crash that hit my car, while destroying utterly three other cars and sending 7 to the hospital. Also on a stroad.

I feel fear whenever I'm on these roads, regardless of my vehicle. And rightly so! You should all be scares, because these stroads are what's most likely to kill or injure you until you start dropping dead of heart disease in your fifties and beyond.

[Darrell Wesh]

1 minute ago, LanghamP said:

This is very close to the crash that hit my car, while destroying utterly three other cars and sending 7 to the hospital. Also on a stroad.

I feel fear whenever I'm on these roads, regardless of my vehicle. And rightly so! You should all be scares, because these stroads are what's most likely to kill or injure you until you start dropping dead of heart disease in your fifties and beyond.

Luckily my town doesn’t have stroads. My hometown does in VA Beach but the roads are so fast (50mph) I would never ride my unicycles on them (no bike lanes)