Yeah, I know I'm drifting off topic here but there are WAY too many big, dangerous trucks on the highways. And it might just get worse. They are talking about driverless trucks. In my own personal, honest, humble opinion "driverless trucks" should NEVER be allowed on our highways. Think about this for a minute: What if that truck that blew a tire had actually been the leading truck of a four-truck "platoon" with the following three driverless. O.K., so what happens to those following three trucks after he blows a tire and loses control? These are not trains; they can't just automatically dump the air and stop. The American people should begin asking some very serious questions about this before this genie is let out of the bottle 'cause once she's out it might be extremely difficult to put back in again.
Are you serious? A bus can come to a stop in 1/20 the distance that a train can. A bus can steer out of the way of obstacles. Trains can not. A bus won't fly off the road if it goes slightly too fast around a slight bend. A train going too fast around a curve can fly off the rails. The two are completely unrelated and incomparable.
That is actually exactly what happens. The emergency/parking brake on trucks are spring loaded, and air pressure is used to release the brake. In the event of a loss of air pressure, it fails to safe and the brake applies.
Driverless vehicles are statistically much safer than human operated vehicles. I have no idea what you're talking about with driverless truck "platoons", but your argument that it's safest to keep people in the driver seat, is objectively false.
A bus will fly off the road, or topple over if it goes too fast around a curve. A bus going 80 mph can stop faster than a train... But not instantly to avoid collisions.
Even if an automatic truck is less safe and adaptable than your personal abilities it only has to be statistically safer than the average human trucker to be a net positive for everyone else. Just yesterday the ground beneath my feet shook and shuddered as a careless trucker suddenly bottomed out on a paved wash. It was so loud and jarring I had to look up from some paperwork about another trucker who had fallen off and under his own truck before it crushed him to death. I've seen these truckers ignore signs, drive double the speed limit, and take sharp turns like they're in a sports car. Playing cowboys and idiots is just part of the job for them and the current administration is doing what it can to roll our safety restrictions even further back.
Lack of guard rail protecting against excursions off the highway was a significant scary issue on the NEC near Claymont DE, when a truck blew onto the 125mph NEC track after blowing a tire. Fortunately there was no 125mph train approaching at that speed on that track at that time. An accident that no PTC would have prevented without much more robust incursion detection in place. Incursion prevention is way more effective. Protecting the track there with Jersey Barriers is probably a relatively cheap and effective solution, but AFAICT, that has not happened yet, while we are busy trying to discontinue an LD train because supposedly of the lack of PTC.
Now that seems promising (to me). Maybe Anderson will start to actually give a **** about the consequences of his actions and how it makes Amtrak look now that 13 different New Mexico reps are starting to get involved. JMO.
How can the vote have been 95- 6 ? There are only 100 Senators and McCain for sure was not present.
Enjoy Channel 9 while you can, UA is removing it from aircraft now or turning it off.
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