Driving in Australia
The Global Superstar: The Taxi
The modern world is dominated by technology, corporation and progress; it is situated within the context of world superpowers secretly fighting it out for power and control. However, what overrides all of these thing is the vital need for communication and contact, without which this global society would not be possible. But do not worry, I am not going to launch into a political rant about the capitalist agenda and the weakness of democracy (I am not Russell Brand after all, much as that saddens me to say). Instead, I wish to talk about what began as a small local endeavour has evolved into a worldwide institution. They provide the communication and contact we so crave. Despite their importance, we often take them for granted. And yet, here they remain. Ladies and gentlemen, I would like to take these few moments to examine the truth behind the majesty of the taxi.
Throughout my life, I have had the privilege of travelling to a wide range of countries, which has meant that I have had the pleasure of riding in a multitude of taxis. These rides have ranged from the normal to the downright ridiculous, but that is for another day. I cannot hide the fact that I am a London boy at heart, and so my life has been dominated by the London Black Cab. Therefore, I shall focus my attention on probably one of the most famous cars on the planet. The Black Cab has been so engrained into British culture that I am surprised it has not yet been adopted into the Royal Family.
At first glance, this post may appear to be a little random. However, this post was inspired by the results of a recent survey by Hotels.com that revealed a glimpse into how we rank the taxi-cabs of the world. Over 2,600 people responded to the survey from around 30 countries. The results showed that the top 4 taxis were:
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London
- Tokyo
- New York
- Berlin
Some of the other statistics to come from this survey include activities that we often find ourselves doing while in the back of a taxi:
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Texting/ Emailing (19%)
- Sleeping (15%)
- Eating (10%)
- Kissing (9%)
Interestingly enough, it turns out that the British people are the people least afraid of erm… showing affection while in the back of a taxi, with 14% admitting to amorous taxi activity, which says a lot considering the global average is only 4%. What are we like ey?
Seeing as the British taxi seemed to do so well in the survey, the least they deserve is a fellow Brit to further explain their greatness. I mean after all, living in London has meant that I have had the pleasure of getting meet and speak to people from all over the world. Tourists all seem to say the same things when in London:
Buckingham Palace, The Changing of the Guard, The Red Phonebox and of course, the Black Cab.
Even though I consider myself a local to these parts, there are even times even now where I find myself in awe of the Black Cab. It is physically, mentally and LITERALLY impossible to go out and about in London and not see a Black taxi. They dominate the cultural landscape of the city. You might even say that they define the very essence of London. London would not be London without them. The only thing that I hold in higher stead than the taxis themselves are their drivers. London cab drivers have attained an international status – they are genuinely some of the most intelligent and insighful people I have ever met. There is very little they do not know about. I mean seriously I have a undergraduate and masters degree in archaeology and I have had a sustained intellectual conversation with London taxi drivers about archaeology which has even tested my knowledge.
It is astounding to be able to get into a taxi in London, reel off a location and the driver will know exactly where you are talking about. Not only will he know where you are talking about, but he will have already mapped about 15 possible routes taking into account distance and traffic. One day I may perform an experiment to see whether a London Black Cab driver is actually better than a SatNav across the streets of the capital. I am willing to put money on the human winning this one. In fact, I have previously personally proven that the human brain can outsmart technology, but that is another story for another time.
Now obviously nothing is perfect, and the Black Cab is no exception. One of the largest complaints that comes with taking these taxis is the ridonculous (yes, that is a word now) cost along with the habit of many drivers to take the ‘scenic’ route so as to make a few extra quid. More worryingly, a few years back when a new model of Black Cab was introduced, they would often well, how can I put this… spontaneously combust. Now I do not know about you but this is not something I want happening to a car that is driving me somewhere. But hey, whatever floats your boat!
As buses, trains and underground trains have become ever more efficient and used over the years, you would think that there would be a worry that the taxi as we know it may begin to decline. But there is no stopping this beast. The taxi has planted itself in the pages of history and will remain long into the future. Even though in London especially, the Black Cab has come under pressure from the rise of newer taxi companies such as Addison Lee, it has fought them off galantly and will continue to fight on.
Long may they reign!
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Keep Driving People!
Peace and Love!
Drivers In The Storm
First of all, I’d like to pass our best wishes and sympathy to the people in the Lithgow area of the Blue Mountains who are having to cope with all the bushfires and possible evacuations. If you have been evacuated, please take care on the roads, as traffic accidents are probably a bigger killer than fires. And those who live in the areas where the refugees from the fires have come to, mind out for the extra traffic on the roads with all the extra people.
In my last blog, I discussed the issue of lightning striking when you’re out driving. However, this isn’t the full story about what you need to know when driving in a storm, as the heavens can throw down a lot more than just a few bolts of lightning – and don’t we all wish that a good storm or three would pour down on all those fires! Heavy rain and hail can also be a bit tricky to negotiate if you’re driving in a storm.
Thunderstorms often bring startlingly heavy precipitation and it often dramatically cuts down visibility, even if you have your windscreen wipers going full bore. It’s often a good idea to put your headlights on during a storm, especially if you’ve got a grey car that’s hard to see against a leaden sky. If the precipitation gets really, really bad, pull over to the side of the road until the storm passes. The good news is that they often do pass by pretty quickly.
Hail can be a bit alarming to have falling on your car. In a really heavy fall, you start to wonder if it’s going to smash your windscreen, and you start thinking about hailstones the size of eggs (they’ve happened). It is possible that heavy hail could crack your windscreen and/or dent your bodywork. Thankfully, this is something that the insurance people are usually reasonable about.
Once the hail has fallen, you then have the hazard of pellets of ice all over the road until the stuff melts. Take extra care when there’s hail on the road, especially with braking and cornering. Hail is more or less extra slippery gravel, especially if it’s managed to pile up a bit. Even if you drive a car made where snow and ice are more common and which has all the safety features (e.g. Volvo, made in a country that reaches into the Arctic Circle), you’re going to need to ease off a bit. Make that a lot.
You also need to take extra care if there hasn’t been any hail but just heavy rain. One of the downsides of living in towns with all the paved roads is that rain doesn’t sink into tarmac the way that it sinks into plain dirt. The upside of this is that city roads don’t turn into mud pools of the sort that a lot of back country drivers have seen in the wet season. The downside is that all that water has to go somewhere, so flooding becomes more likely.
The golden rules for taking it carefully when driving heavy rain of all sorts are:
- Increase your following distance – it should be double what you normally allow.
- No sudden movements for braking, steering or acceleration. Traction control and ABS brakes can only do so much.
- Avoid puddles and pools of water in the road – there’s no way of telling how deep they go or what’s underneath… a pothole, a brick…
- If you do have to go through a puddle because the road has been flooded, pump your brakes lightly on and off after you’ve gone through so you can dry the brakes out a bit so they work better. Water is a lubricant, after all.
Hidden Speed Cameras: Safety vs Revenue.
It’s a contentious issue and one that changes a simple conversation into full blown arguments: speed and speed cameras, safety device or revenue raiser? First up, what EXACTLY is speed? According to Wikipedia:
In kinematics, the speed of an object is the magnitude of its velocity (the rate of change of its position); it is thus a scalar quantity. The average speed of an object in an interval of time is the distance travelled by the object divided by the duration of the interval; the instantaneous speed is the limit of the average speed as the duration of the time interval approaches zero. Like velocity, speed has the dimensions of a length divided by a time; the SI unit of speed is the metre per second, but the most usual unit of speed in everyday usage is the kilometre per hour or, in the USA and the UK, miles per hour. For air and marine travel the knot is commonly used.
Or more simply, A cyclist who covers 30 metres in a time of 2 seconds, for example, has a speed of 15 metres per second. Basically velocity over distance in a time frame. In Australia, we measure our speed as kilometres per hour, so fifty kilometres per hour is fifty thousand metres of distance travelled every 3600 seconds. This equates to be 13.888 metres every second. 80 k’s per hour is 22.222 metres per second and 11o is 30.555 metres per second. Ok, we’re clear on that?
There are those that say that if you don’t speed then you won’t receive an infringement. True, undeniably true but it sidesteps what the argument is all about. There’s also the ubiquitous and well worn “speed kills”. Let’s put this into one context: if a driver travels at 60kilometres per hour in a rated zone of fifty kilometres per hour, that driver is, technically, speeding. If the driver is doing the same speed, sixty kmh in an 80 kmh zone, the same speed remember, they’re not speeding. So, according to convention, the media, the police etc, the first is dangerous yet, somehow, that same velocity over distance per time isn’t….back to “speed kills”….which speed, exactly?
Our residential roads are zoned at 50 kmh. Our highways are zoned at either 100 kmh or 110 kmh. Travel at 80 kmh in a 60 kmh and you’re speeding BUT in order to achieve a speed of 100/110 kmh you not only have to reach 80 kmh but EXCEED that speed. So what is dangerous, 80 in a 60 or passing that formerly dangerous speed to one that is deemed safe????
Ok, we’re told that speed kills. It’s a blanket statement, exactly like “the customer is always right”. The problem is the caveat part of those statements is missing. Speed doesn’t kill, it’s the sudden stop. This is where physics comes into play, with an object in motion possessing kinetic energy. That kinetic energy has to be dispersed when that object stops; also, a little more physics. You may have heard of “G force”; from Wikipedia:
G-force (with g from gravitational) is a measurement of acceleration felt as weight. It is not a force, but a force per unit mass and can be measured with an accelerometer. Since such a force is perceived as a weight, any g-force can be described as a “weight per unit mass” (see the synonym specific weight). The g-force acceleration acts as a multiplier of weight-like forces for every unit of an object’s mass, and (save for certain electromagnetic force influences) is the cause of an object’s acceleration in relation to free-fall
Under normal and everyday circumstances, a human is experiencing a G force load of 1G. Deceleration also involves G force and the higher the deceleration the higher the G force. To be slightly technical: The expression “1 g = 9.80665 m/s2“ means that for every second that elapses, velocity changes 9.80665 meters per second (≡35.30394 km/h). This rate of change in velocity can also be denoted as 9.80665 (meter per second) per second, or 9.80665 m/s2. For example: An acceleration of 1 g equates to a rate of change in velocity of approximately 35 kilometres per hour (22 mph) for each second that elapses. Therefore, if an automobile is capable of braking at 1 g and is traveling at 35 kilometres per hour (22 mph) it can brake to a standstill in one second and the driver will experience a deceleration of 1 g. The automobile traveling at three times this speed, 105 km/h (65 mph), can brake to a standstill in three seconds. For humans, death or serious injury occurs with a G force rating of >25G. So, clearly, it’s neither speed (to keep it simple, let’s presume a constant velocity therefore a G force of 1G) nor acceleration (as even the space shuttle was kept to an acceleration G force of less than 3G), that kills people, it IS the sudden stop. To use a somewhat graphic yet famous example, the crash that took the lives of Princess Diana and Dodi Fayed was estimated to have a G force factor of 70G to 100G….
The Bathurst 1000 event over the weekend of 11-13 October 2013 saw a number of crashes, including young drivers Tim Slade and Chaz Mostert. It was estimated that the G force shunts for both was around 30G. Now, here’s the rub; the vehicles they are driving are built and engineered with what is considered high speed in mind. Also, the safety mechanisms we take for granted, primarily airbags, are removed BUT they have super strength seatbelts in a configuration known as a four point harness. Relative movement or slackness of these belts is hugely minimal compared to the seatbelts in cars (http://hyperphysics.phy-astr.gsu.edu/hbase/seatb.html) therefore their bodily movement will be severely reduced. As a result, a combination of that primary safety factor and car construction aided in reducing serious injury, to the point both drivers reported bruising and some aches, but nothing worse.
So speed kills? No, it doesn’t. Clearly, obviously, provably. Therefore the argument for restricting speed limits and using speed cameras has serious opposition. Therefore the argument for speed cameras to stop speeding is invalid. An example: a driver is travelling a road zoned at 110 kilometres per hour in dry conditions and 100 percent visibility (the caveat). It’s raining, it’s foggy and it’s dusk. Visibility, even with headlights on (a safety factor badly overlooked) is 10 metres. Remember that 110kmh is 30 metres PER SECOND. Is it safe to travel at 110 even though that’s what the signs say that driver can do? But if that driver DOES travel at 110 they aren’t breaking the law and therefore not subject to receiving an infringement. But is it SAFE? By no sensible reasoning should this be seen as safe. Road limits are set for the presumption of 100% visibility for the direction of road travel and road design and the surrounding area and in many areas they are too low.
So: speed cameras are used to restrict excessive speed, with posted limits set under what is presumably the best conditions, with one unassailable fact, the biggest chance factor of all: how good is the driver? Anyone that races at Bathurst is there because, not only can they race, they can handle speeds that the authorities would have us believe is dangerous. Remember, the majority of the year sees the track a residential road, with a posted limit of just 60 kmh. If speed kills, then why are all the drivers that raced this year still alive? No, it’s not a petty and frivolous question, as we are told, repeatedly, speed is dangerous…..but to who? Certainly not Mark Winterbottom, certainly not Warren Luff, certainly not Andy Priaulx. Speed cameras are used to control speed, they don’t control bad drivers. Well trained and educated and AWARE drivers are so much more safer to deal with and they can deal with speeds others can’t. There is no justification for speed cameras in many locations but yes, in some places they should be mandatory.
According to the Bureau of Statistics, in 2010, a staggering 44.2% of fatal crashes were a single vehicle crash, whilst 42% were multiple vehicle. The inescapable fact is these crashes have one common cause or factor and it’s not speed. It’s a bad driver. In the same year, at speeds of up to just 60kmh, the equation was 28.3% of fatalities occurred in that grouping, whilst in the sixty five to ninety zone it was 22.4%. What’s more frightening is the change of numbers in the Northern Territory; in 2009 it was 13 people per 100000 that were in a fatal crash. In 2010, it jumped to 21. Those numbers increased almost year by year after the unlimited roads were changed to a maximum of 130 kmh. Time of the crashes is also an important factor: in 2012 there were more fatalities in NSW between 12 and 1 pm (30) than at any other time of the day, with Victoria not far behind at 18 between 1 and 2pm. Neither could hardly to be said it’s peak hour traffic yet Allianz Insurance says the most common form of crash is the nose to tail. Guess when these are likely to happen? That’s right, peak hour.
Speed doesn’t kill. Speed cameras do nothing to reduce the reason people die in a crash: the sudden stop. The Victorian police say they’re going to hide their cameras so the operators don’t get hurt by the occasional twit that’s just been nabbed speeding, presumably because 1) they’re a twit for not slowing when the sign says there’s a camera or 2) didn’t slow because they were too busy looking at their speedometer. It’s commendable but I’m sure you can understand the cynical laughs from those that can do what the law, ostensibly, wants everyone to do. Drive, rather than steer, a vehicle.
Top 5 Australian Cars of the 20th Cenury
Although Australian cars are the world over known for certain characteristics, it goes without saying that often people don’t sit down to think about the specific cars that have helped shaped the nation for generations. In this blog post, we look at the top 5 Australian cars of the 20th Century, and give our reasons as to why, despite flashier or smarter options available, these workhorses have kept the country turning.
The Ford Falcon
One half of the Ford/Holden rivalry that continues to this day, the Ford Falcon was in many ways seen as being bested by the General Motors variant. The Ford itself however was, and still is, a perfectly capable family sized powerhorse. It’s inclusion on this list is indisputable – Ford is planning on stopping Falcon production in 2016 as the sales of larger, gas guzzling cars begins to dwindle.
Holden Commodore VT
The Commodores as a line of cars themselves are of course perfectly able – but the VT model of 1997 is especially important, as it marked the beginning of Holden’s recognition in global spheres. It still is the best selling Commodore to date – and with a more European inspired design (such as the rear suspension from the Vauxhall Omega) parts were fairly easy to come by.
Toyota Avalon
The Toyota Avalon didn’t sell well, but it is important in the car market in Australia, if only because it inspired the enormously popular Toyota Aurion. Introduced as a 1995 year car, it may look boring, but was one of only a few in its field offering front wheel drive in a largely rear wheel drive market. As you can expect, attaching a 3.0 V6 and an automatic gearbox to a front wheel drive car didn’t provide the world’s best handling.
Toyota Camry
Originating in approximately 1980, and following the same lines as the Toyoto Celica Coupe, the Camry continues to this day to be North America’s best selling car and incredibly popular in Australia and Asia. At the time, it was considered well equipped and well designed – it also followed the trend at the time for Australia’s cars to be more economic, cheaper and lighter.
Holden VL Commodore SS Group A
You might think that all the cars we’ve featured so far have been pretty bland – and to some extent you’d be true – but you wait for this one…
The Holden VL Commodore SS was the first car produced by the Holden Dealer Team – an official partner organisation to Holden who boosts the performance of stock cars to eye watering levels of speed and power. The Holden VL Commodore SS Group A spawned a generation of Holden Special Vehicles and helped promote the V8 Racing Scene to the hugely popular levels it enjoys today.
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