AUTOMOTIVE - VEHICULAR ARTICLES PAGE 3

2/22/2018· Automotive - Vehicular

Safety Compromises, Part 4: Speeding

By: Ned Einstein

Speeding would seem like the most obvious safety compromise. Speeding would seem like the most natural remedy to a schedule too tight, and the most obvious way to pick up more passengers, increase system capacity and maximize revenue: Just drive faster.

3/21/2018· Automotive - Vehicular

A Paradigm Shift in Motorcoach Accessibility, Part 1: The MCI D45 CRT LE Commuter Coach

By: Ned Einstein

As an urban planner by background, there are certain clichés I have grown to loath. Among my least favorite is the phrase 'paradigm shift.' This is because few things in the transportation field ever comprise a paradigm shift. Among the true exceptions were the 45-foot-long coach, the proliferation of double-deckers, Megabus pricing, and the advances in super-clean diesel engines. Autonomous coaches seem decades away (even while exploding on the scene in Europe). Otherwise, nothing else close to a paradigm shift in this traditional industry comes to mind.

4/12/2018· Transportation

A Paradigm Shift in Motorcoach Accessibility, Part 2: The MCI D45 CRT LE Commuter Coach

By: Ned Einstein

In Part 1 of this three-installment series, I characterized the development of MCI's new ramp-equipped accessible motorcoach (the MCI D45 CRT LE) as a "paradigm shift." While I will expand on why this is so in the third and last installment next month, this installment will overview the most unique features of this remarkable vehicle -- a vehicle whose ultimate potential I feel has not yet been realized.

5/17/2018· Transportation

Safety Compromises, Part 5 - Failing to Kneel the Bus or Coach

By: Ned Einstein

For many passengers, the 14-inch drop from the bottom step of a high-floor transit bus or motorcoach is challenging. In transit service, drivers do not assist or even spot boarding or alighting passengers. While motorcoach drivers typically assist or spot boarding or alighting passengers at the front door, the drivers of motorcoaches deployed in commuter/express service (provided by transit agencies or companies under contract to them) do not. Nor do scheduled service drivers do so consistently, especially at intermediate stops.

6/7/2018· Transportation

Safety Compromises, Part 6: Failing to Pull to the Curb

By: Ned Einstein

Other than airport-to-parking lot shuttles, and an occasional tour or charter trip, all public transportation services pickup and discharge their passengers at the side of a roadway. When it is available, they pickup and discharge them from or onto a curb, sidewalk, platform or other raised surface.

11/3/2004· Automotive - Vehicular

Defensive Non-Driving

By: Ned Einstein

Since driving a 20- or 25-ton motorcoach is touted as so being difficult, it is only fair to ask why so much carnage, and so many law suits, occur apart from collisions. In particular, the number of incidents occurring at or near stops seems largely disproportionate to the perceived simplicity of handling things when the bus or coach is stationary

10/5/2019· Automotive - Vehicular

Autonomous and Inevitable: Drivers v. Robots, Part 1

By: Ned Einstein

This series of installments, which shall appear periodically, will examine some likely reactions to the robots by drivers.

2/4/2020· Automotive - Vehicular

Drivers v. Robots: Defensive Driving in the Age of Entitlement (Part 3)

By: Ned Einstein

With these dynamics, defensive driving is not a mere skill. It is a necessity. In their depositions, few professional drivers can identify even a handful of defensive driving principles...Robots have advantages beyond the elimination of jobs. Robots have no reaction time. They experience no fatigue. Disciplines like driver assignment cease to exist.

4/16/2020· Transportation

Safety and Liability: Motorcoach Survival in the Age of COVID-19 (Part 1)

By: Ned Einstein

I would normally begin a series by exploring the origin of the problems. These would have included four decades of failure in multiple sectors of public transportation. Among its fellow modes, the motorcoach industry created the fewest of these failures. But the motorcoach industry has been limited in its capabilities...

5/22/2020· Automotive - Vehicular

Drivers v. Robots: The Starting Five (Part 5)

By: Ned Einstein

The consequences of robots provide a stark contrast to the glistening, beautifully designed, brilliantly engineered, clean fuel-burning, energy-efficient vehicles displayed on the pages of NATIONAL BUS TRADER and other trade magazines. They are often creatively-deployed in well-marketed services, often optimizing both safety and comfort instead of trading one for the other