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Sideshoots - associated subjects => The Lighter Side => Topic started by: grahame on June 26, 2013, 22:07:39



Title: twenty questions
Post by: grahame on June 26, 2013, 22:07:39
1. As I walked along Milton road in Cambridge, I saw a queue of twenty cars.  How many of them had just the driver in them?

2. Twenty cyclists went past me. How many of them were wearing cycling helmets?

3. I was training twenty delegates near the Science Park stop on the guided busway.  How many of them had used the guided bus to get in to the course that morning?

Twenty is a reasonable size sample from which to get a very rough idea (very rough indeed) of patterns.

If I add up the numbers that are the answer to (1), (2) and (3), I get twenty!   Can you guess what the individual answers / counts were to each of the three micro counts I did?


Title: Re: twenty questions
Post by: Network SouthEast on June 26, 2013, 22:10:28
17 cars had one person
3 cyclists wearing a helmet
0 used the guided busway


Title: Re: twenty questions
Post by: JayMac on June 26, 2013, 22:11:19
19-1-0


Title: Re: twenty questions
Post by: Red Squirrel on June 26, 2013, 22:14:22
I'll go 12-6-2 (sounds like Whyte notation for a class of engine designed to carry a heavy ash load in the smokebox)

Edit: Read questions before answering them, young Squirrel.



Title: Re: twenty questions
Post by: grahame on June 26, 2013, 22:20:39
Network South East just needs to lower one value by 1 and raise another by 1 to be correct

Bignosemac has shown himself to be a cynic

Red Squirrel has far too much faith in the people of Cambridge.    This isn't a green city like Bristol, remember


Title: Re: twenty questions
Post by: Southern Stag on June 26, 2013, 22:36:57
18-2-0


Title: Re: twenty questions
Post by: JayMac on June 26, 2013, 22:38:46
Bignosemac has shown himself to be a cynic

At least you didn't say 'professional'. I'm merely a not so gifted amateur.

Let's try 16-3-1.


Title: Re: twenty questions
Post by: grahame on June 26, 2013, 22:47:19
Bignosemac has shown himself to be a cynic

At least you didn't say 'professional'. I'm merely a not so gifted amateur.

Let's try 16-3-1.

Good try, Southern Stag, but Bignosemac now has it spot on


16 out of 20 cars had just one person in them

3 out of 20 cyclists were wearing helmets (though watching later, I think that was a low number in my sample)

1 used the guided busway.  The others? 12 delegates drove, 3 walked, and 4 cycled.


Title: Re: twenty questions
Post by: JayMac on June 26, 2013, 22:49:54
Good try, Southern Stag, but Bignosemac now has it spot on

Woohoo!!!

Is there a prize?  ;) :P ;D


Title: Re: twenty questions
Post by: grahame on June 26, 2013, 23:28:57
Is there a prize?  ;) :P ;D

There's a prize on the quiz that's running at http://www.firstgreatwestern.info/coffeeshop/index.php?topic=12483.0

... can I suggest to all members they take a look at that and have a go ...


Title: Re: twenty questions
Post by: thetrout on June 28, 2013, 22:22:49
Where you the person who used the guided busway?!! ;D


Title: Re: twenty questions
Post by: grahame on June 28, 2013, 22:31:38
Where you the person who used the guided busway?!! ;D

I arrived in Cambridge on the X5 coach from Oxford, I walked while there (including that morning of the survey) and I took a guided bus from the Science Park to the station at the start of my journey to Dublin.  That's now 1 taxi, 1 ferry, 2 buses, 3 trains and 4 trams ago ... so it seems quite a while back!


Title: Re: twenty questions
Post by: grahame on June 28, 2013, 22:40:43
P.S.   Greetings from Dublin ...

(http://www.wellho.net/pix/dublincrossing.jpg)



Title: Re: twenty questions
Post by: Chris from Nailsea on June 30, 2013, 22:15:05
Cough, splutter, Elfin Safety, RAIB having apoplexy, etc. ...  :o ::) ;D


Title: Re: twenty questions
Post by: stuving on June 30, 2013, 22:32:24
Ah ... not familiar with trams, then?


Title: Re: twenty questions
Post by: Chris from Nailsea on June 30, 2013, 22:40:05
I am - and so are the RAIB, sadly: see http://www.raib.gov.uk/cms_resources.cfm?file=/130214_R032013_Sandilands.pdf and http://www.raib.gov.uk/cms_resources.cfm?file=/120530_R082012_Piccadilly_Gardens.pdf  :-X


Title: Re: twenty questions
Post by: JayMac on July 01, 2013, 03:18:49
Minor pedantic point.

grahame's picture was from Dublin, so it won't be the RAIB being apoplectic. It'll be the RAIU (http://www.raiu.ie/about/). Or maybe the Garda. Looking at the RAIU website there are no investigations listed for tram v pedestrian fatalities although there have been at least three since the LUAS started operating.


Title: Re: twenty questions
Post by: stuving on July 01, 2013, 08:18:28
I still don't see anything in the picture to trigger Mr. Growser the inspector to have a seizure. No doubt buggy-pushers would be best advised (and are advised by LUAS) to use the flat crossing at the end of the platform. But they are pedestrians, so advice has only a limited effect (being Irish is not relevant). In any case, one of the RAIB reports you cite shows that providing a crossing place can make pedestrians less likely to look both ways first. Or are you looking at a super-3D version of the picture, and can see a tram coming?

I'm sure there are some specific issues about public use and awareness of tram systems, such as how people cope with the different regimes they may run under - on-street mixed traffic, in pedestrian-only areas, in tram stations, on-street reserved but unfenced, on-street fenced off, out-of-town as a railway, etc., etc. But I am not aware of any serious concern that trams and pedestrians just can't be safely mixed - without which you can't have trams. And don't the same considerations apply to guided buses? Or just buses? We have noted here before that the safety regime applied to rail is stricter than to equivalent non-rail road transport.

I've been saying for years that if we had somehow avoided ever having road vehicles, but had reached our current state of technology and public opinion, you could not really introduce them now. Just think: "You mean lumps of metal of a ton or more whizzing past pedestrians at lethal speeds only separated by a foot or two? You must be mad. And anyone can drive one? Now you're being silly. I could just about accept professional drivers only, otherwise we have to go back to the man with the flag idea..."


Title: Re: twenty questions
Post by: Red Squirrel on July 01, 2013, 08:56:27

"You mean lumps of metal of a ton or more whizzing past pedestrians at lethal speeds only separated by a foot or two? You must be mad..."


The double-standards here can be shocking. The bus lanes introduced as part of the Greater Bristol Bus Network on Gloucester Rd, Bristol (a busy shopping area), have buses travelling at full speed inches from pedestrians on crowded pavements; at times the buses' wing mirrors overhang the pavements.


Title: Re: twenty questions
Post by: thetrout on July 01, 2013, 11:14:45
The trams in Croydon spring to mind as well as the Manchester Metrolink ;)


Title: Re: twenty questions
Post by: bobm on July 02, 2013, 07:58:12
Just as a topical aside, there is a television programme on the history of British Trams at 10pm this evening (2nd July) on BBC 4.  It is a repeat showing, but I must have missed it before.


Title: Re: twenty questions
Post by: grahame on July 14, 2013, 17:28:20
Cambridge is Britain's top cycling city:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-23274432

Of 16 riders on cycles in the video, only 3 were wearing helmets.   And the chap who's job it is to promote cycle use wasn't one of them.  He rode up helmetless.




Title: Re: twenty questions
Post by: Red Squirrel on July 14, 2013, 17:52:37
Cambridge is Britain's top cycling city:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-23274432

Of 16 riders on cycles in the video, only 3 were wearing helmets.   And the chap who's job it is to promote cycle use wasn't one of them.  He rode up helmetless.


...from which I infer that you think they should all be wearing helmets?

There are 'cyclists', and there are 'people on bikes'. Cyclists are sporty types who wear lycra and helmets. People on bikes are regular folk just getting around.

People on bikes shouldn't need helmets any more than pedestrians do, and IMHO everything possible should be done to make this form of cycling safer and more 'normal'. The Dutch, for the most part, don't wear them. But don't listen to me banging on about it, here is a better argument than I can make (http://www.treehugger.com/bikes/do-bicycle-helmet-laws-do-more-harm-than-good.html) . The key conclusion is that:

Quote

That is the lesson from the Netherlands, that we need more cyclists and better bike paths more than we need helmets


...oh, and one other thing: Just remember that cycling is the only pursuit that does you good even if you don't do it - everyone benefits from cleaner air and more road space.

Edit: Typo


Title: Re: twenty questions
Post by: grahame on July 14, 2013, 18:46:34
...from which I infer that you think they should all be wearing helmets?

The law leaves it up to the individual.  But I do think it might be a good idea for the chap who's promoting cycling to set a good example.   Rather like the law letting us cross the road against red pedestrian lights, but it being a good idea to hold back and set a good example by waiting in front of our or other people's children.

Interesting perspective at
http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/bike-blog/2013/jul/09/bike-blog-cycling-road-safety



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