SOME IDEAS AND PROJECTS THAT I AM
PLEASED TO BE ASSOCIATED WITH...
ROAD
SAFETY
1979
Contributed to a national review of heavy vehicle mass &
dimensions, including initiating research on road friendly
suspensions. At the time "load sharing" was proposed as the
main criteria but I came across UK research that showed load
sharing without damping or resistance to braking torque increases
damage to roads. This led to research by Dr Peter Sweatman
at ARRB. I also developed a computer program (initially
written by Rod Vaughan) to enable assessment of the swept
paths of vehicles - used
for regulation review and design of heavy vehicle
inspection stations.
1983 Managed the implementation of
the NSW
Heavy Vehicle Inspection Scheme - project planning,
equipment acquisition, construction of 3 heavy vehicle
inspection stations, staffing, rural logistics and phone
bookings, financial projections... for annual roadworthiness
inspections of trucks and buses
1989 Chaired the B-Double Working Party that introduced a
trial of B-Double
trucks in NSW
1994 Flashing
warning lights on school buses need to be much
brighter than conventional turn signals, which have very
limited signal range on bright sunny days. The bright lights
used on school buses in the USA are ideal for Australian
conditions (with Dr Alec Fisher)
1994 Assisting with CAPFA (now Kidsafe) Children
in Car Crashes study (with Dr Michael Henderson)
2003 Daytime running lights,
using dedicated LED lights, are worthwhile in Australia and
are much more effective than low beam headlights
2005 Motorcycles should have bright
yellow front turn signals as daytime
running lights - these would uniquely identify
motorcycles to other motorists (allowing better distance
judgement) and would not take any more precious space at the
front of the motorcycle. The regulations actually permit turn
signals to remain on when not flashing so they are currently
legal.
2011 Alternative
motorised vehicles that look like cars should
protect the occupants as well as those of modern cars (they
should meet crash test regulations). Small motorised
vehicles such as power-assisted bicycles and e-scooters
should be speed-limited instead of power limited. Speed
settings should be based on infrastructure and other users.
Motorised vehicles intended for footpath use , like mobility
scooters, must be capable of extremely low speed travel and
manoeuvring (which bicycles are not).
1997 Created a webpage Australian
Spaceguard to make people aware of the withdrawal
of Australian government funding of the highly successful
asteroid search led by Duncan Steel. That
page has been referred to by US astronaut John
Young in The Lunar Base
Handbook (page 773)
1999-2003 Rocks from
Space - series of articles for Space.com (with help
from Rob Britt)
2000 Sun-orbiting objects under 1000km in diameter should be
called “microplanets”
and Pluto-Charon should be regarded as a binary
planet because the barycentre is outside the
surface of Pluto
2001 Developing a method of illustrating possible
links
between microplanet impacts and mass extinctions -
subsequently used in an illustration in Scientific
American (page 79) (PDF here)
2014 Concept
notes for a lightsail balloon - able to be inflated and
deflated in the vacuum of space without the need to a
deployable support structure
COMMUNITY
& ENVIRONMENT
1974 A stepped-hull
surfboard might overcome high speed instability
(now relevant to tow surfing)
1977 Windsurfers are brilliant - but snow sailing is
difficult
2000 Local
environment plans should set out a desired future
character for a locality and planning should not be based on
precedent (more of the same)
2000 Draft
Rating Protocol for Green Car Guide - prepared for
NSW Sustainable Energy Development Authority. Includes a
suggested method for rating electric vehicles
