Picture: Local bus driver Steve inspects the aluminium
recycling for the editor's ecology action pick up
van earlier this week.

The big cycling driver
aggro debate is escalating with
a malicious attack on a group of sportsmen and women. It looks like a hit
and run and legal bunfight with some heavy weight stakeholders like Olympian
athletes, cyclist Adam Spencer of 702 abc radio and
NRMA deep bias to car drivers.

But there is actually a resolution
in this pitched battle over property in the road surface, and human right to
choose one's mode of transport (especially the ethical choice of cycling). It's
more about adjusting human perspective than surrounding transport realities
which don't change very much.

Our credentials here are 5 years
2002-2007 as street press delivery driver thoughout the inner city. And we still
do some delivery work occasionally as above. Not quite the freeway type road
conditions on the relevant Southern Cross Drive in this conflict but the
principles are the same:

1. Expert fuel conservation drivers
advise that a speed reduction of say 50% on city roads has not much change in
the trip arrival time but it also saves petrol used by 30% saving alot of money
(see below). How so? Well it's obvious really - city driving is from one bottle
neck (eg traffic light, congested traffic) to the next. It is nothing in this
reality to be held up 30 seconds at a traffic light, similar to navigating past
a big bunch of sports cyclists. Not that we are into cycling for sport, more
like for work and basic transport:

It's not your maximum speed, it's
the average around you that counts. To fight against the crowd around you is
like swimming against a rip at the beach - it's a waste of time and energy.
People who don't get this are having trouble with their own narrow perceptions
(which brings me back to the old hobby horse about alcohol and the decades long
slow brain damage, or indeed the bad mood from a hang over the morning
after):

It's amazing how over takers will
be right next to you at the next lights because everyone is only as fast as the
next bottleneck. Indeed look at this expert study of lane changers for no time
saving with excess use of fuel:

 [University of Queensland,
Faculty of Engineering, Physical Sciences and Architecture]

New Research Says Lane Changers Get No
Savings

11 August
2006
by Charlotte
Nash-Stewart
 
With petrol prices rising, new research from
Civil Engineering’s Intelligent Transport Systems (ITS) Research Laboratory
shows aggressive drivers not only use more fuel and create more emissions than
defensive drivers, but save themselves little travel time in the
process.
 
“When you compare the fuel consumption and emissions, it can be
up to four times greater for aggressive drivers in a motorway environment,” said
ITS Lab Director Dr Hussein Dia. “And for just a 4% saving in travel time.”
(62seconds on a 26 minute trip)
 
The study modelled aggressive drivers as
taking greater risks when following other vehicles and changing lanes, and
simulated travel on a fairly uncongested M1 motorway.
 
“In the simulator,
aggressive drivers accept shorter follow-up distances to the vehicle ahead,”
said Dr Dia.  “For instance they are willing to take a two second gap where a
defensive driver might look for a four or five second gap.”
 
Aggressive
drivers were also more hazardous.  The simulations show frequent braking while
attempting lane changes results in near collisions, which can also create a
congestion “shock wave” in traffic behind them.
 
“This effect can last
for 10-15 minutes, and by the time you get past it, there is no apparent
problem,” said Dr Dia.  “All it takes, especially on freeways, is someone
travelling at 100km/hr to suddenly brake to create this ripple
effect.”
 
The ITS lab generated the data from existing simulation
programs, and included their own fuel field data validated consumption and
emissions model.
 
“From the acceleration and speed of the vehicle we can
tell how much fuel is being used,” said Dr Dia.  “From the field data, we are
quite confident it is a good replication.”
 
Many drivers listening to the
research findings on ABC radio were surprised to hear that many lane changes
would not significantly speed their trip.
 
“A lot of people were
surprised because they thought they would get there five or ten minutes earlier,
but this wasn’t the case, and they didn’t realise the damage they were causing
the environment,” said Dr Dia.  “Most fuel consumption and emissions occur
during accelerating and decelerating.  If you travel smoothly and only change
lanes when necessary it is much more efficient.”
 
“You might save a
couple of minutes here and there, but what you’re doing to the environment and
your own hip pocket, not to mention stress ... These findings reinforce what we
already know:  lane discipline is a basic premise in traffic engineering as it
ensures that drivers and vehicles get from their origins to destinations quicker
and safer,” he said.  “That is the ultimate aim of any efficient transport
system.”
 
Dr Dia said the key was changing driver behaviour, and this
data compliments research on other applications being prepared for the
Queensland Department of Main Roads to encourage drivers to stay in their lanes
and maintain safe distances.
 
Such measures include lane control, such as
on Coronation Drive, over-road dynamic message signs, and variable speed limits
which would allow bottlenecks to be relieved at peak periods by dynamically
changing the speed of upstream traffic.
 
The simulations on aggressive
driver behaviour were undertaken for an ABC field study and Dr Dia said it was
rewarding that the simulation results matched the field data, showing the ITS
Lab models to be calibrated and validated with a practical degree of accuracy.

 
For more information…
ITS Lab
ABC Catalyst Program News
Item
View the Simulation
Experiment

2. Building on point 1, cutting
travel time while driving is all about planning ahead and making the right
strategic decisions about how to get into the best flowing stream of traffic
while travelling quite moderate or slow. For instance:

(a) Marrickville to CBD 7.30-9.00
am , best to avoid Newtown totally, and go via Dulwich Hill to Parramatta Rd via
Broadway.

(b) Similarly Marrickville to
Eastern Suburbs in peak hour morning or evening - avoid CBD and Oxford St.
Travel via Alexandria, Surry Hills and Moore Park Rd.

3. Driving fast in city traffic is
a very big waste of money:

 Take it slow and save big on
gas

Driving
style has a big impact on fuel economy. Backing off can save
big.

By Peter
Valdes-Dapena, CNNMoney.com staff writer

May 9,
2006: 5:41 PM EDT

NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) - You
can get 35 percent better fuel mileage out of your current vehicle by using a
device most drivers already have.

That would be your right
foot.

Most drivers agonizing over the
cost of gasoline fail to realize the enormous impact their driving style has on
fuel consumption.

During the last run-up in
fuel prices, we wrote about Edmunds.com's tests of common fuel-saving driving
tips. Some common tips, it turned out, had little or no effect on fuel economy.
(Edmunds.com provides data and content for CNN.com's automotive Websites.)
...

If you want a big gain in fuel
mileage, though, you need to seriously lay off the pedals when driving around
town. Accelerating more slowly away from green lights and stopping more
gradually for red lights cut fuel consumption in Edmunds.com's tests by 35.4
percent for the Land Rover and 27.1 percent for the Mustang.

Slamming down the gas pedal
pushes more fuel into the engine while it also keeps the engine running
faster.

You can also save a lot of gas
by just lifting your foot off the accelerator as soon as possible when
approaching a yellow or red light or a stop sign.

For one thing, letting up on
the gas sooner gives your car more coasting time.

By the way, when we say
"accelerating hard" and "stopping abruptly" we aren't necessarily talking about
juvenile tire-squealing antics. If you start keeping a conscious eye on how you
drive, you may realize that you've been hot-rodding around for years without
realizing it.

In Edmunds.com's tests, they
slowed acceleration times down to a 20-second run from zero to sixty miles per
hour. Compared to the kind of zero-to-sixty times we hear car makers bragging
about these days, 20 seconds may sound impossibly slow. In fact, it is slow.
But, while it won't get your pulse pounding, it will get you safely onto the
highway.

Since most drivers don't have a
stopwatch handy to time their acceleration, Cole Quinnel, a spokesman for
Chrysler Corp. engineers, advises not pressing the gas pedal down by more than
an inch unless you really have to. Using that approach, the difference in fuel
economy will be appreciable.

Let's say that your car
currently gets 22 miles per gallon overall. If this laid-back driving style gets
you just 30 percent more in fuel mileage, which Edmunds.com's tests indicate it
could, you'd see that increase to about 30 miles per gallon.

It's not easy, though. For most
people, driving this way will feel, to say the least, awkward. When I tried
Quinnel's high-mileage driving advice, it was difficult to maintain this
disciplined approach to acceleration and deceleration without consistent effort.
The minute I let my concentration slip -- Zoom! -- off I'd go again in a
gas-wasting rush, just like I usually do.

And, to be perfectly honest, it
was a little embarrassing to drive that way. Every molecule of testosterone in
my body was begging to be excused for the day.

But, in a couple of short
drives, the car was using significantly less gas per mile, even with my
occasional slip-up. Maybe if I keep it up, I can soothe my dented ego with a
little cash in my wallet.

4. In all cases never worry about
travelling slow or fast behind other traffic. Have your favourite music in the
car and radio stations. Carry water in case it gets hot and suffer dehydration
leading to rage. Be happy, don't worry. Experienced drivers tend to even read a
bit at the lights but the authorities probably wouldn't encourage
this.

The real disruption to travel time
is the choice of road with congestion bottlenecks and knowledge of all
sidestreets which only comes with experience, and ability to judge the traffic
ahead of time to avoid navigational mistakes stuck in the wrong lane
etc.

In this way you can save alot of
petrol driving slower, arrive at roughly the same time, feel alot more relaxed
and learn to love bunches of cyclists because everyone stops at the next
bottleneck anyway.

And the last principle? No. 5 taxi
drivers are very arrogant, but then who would want to do their job every
day?

As petrol becomes very very expensive we
have been researching the following: