Ford Ends the Parallel Parking Nightmare
February 1, 2009
I avoid parallel parking with every ounce of my being. I haven’t attempted a parallel parking maneuver since drivers’ ed in high school. It’s true! So I was really impressed to learn that Ford is introducing an Active Park Assist feature on the 2010 Lincoln MKS, which will be available in summer 2009.
I know what you’re thinking: “Didn’t Lexus already introduce this feature?” Well, yes and no. Ford’s system uses ultrasonic-based sensors and electric power assisted steering to position your car for parallel parking, calculates the optimal steering angle and quickly steers the car into a parking spot with the touch of a single button. This technology is supposed to be a step above the Lexus system which utilizes video cameras to determine how to steer the vehicle. According to Ford execs, the system works faster and more accurately than the Lexus system, and should be less expensive as well.
In addition to helping ease parallel parking woes, the system also increases fuel economy by up to 5 percent while reducing emissions and enhancing performance, compared with traditional steering, Ford says.
“This is technology not for the sake of technology,” said Ali Jammoul, Ford’s chief engineer for chassis engineering and steering systems, “but technology designed to meet the needs and wants of customers.”
If a Lincoln MKS is not in your price range, you will be happy to know that by 2012, Ford plans to fit nearly 90 percent of its Ford, Lincoln and Mercury lineup with this system, putting it within reach for the masses.
Source: http://www.motherproof.com
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Car Parking a ‘Nightmare’ for Hospital Staff
January 25, 2009
WORKERS at Aberdeen Royal Infirmary today claimed they were being threatened with £20 fines for parking in free spaces.
They will no longer be allowed to leave their vehicles in empty visitor spaces if the staff car park is full.
The new rules have left many employees fuming.
Elizabeth Lloyd, 57, a nurse at the Foresterhill site, said staff are being urged to use the park and ride scheme to get to and from work.
But she said this did not suit everyone.
She said: “The park and ride is useless for people doing early shift.
“I start at 7am and the first bus doesn’t get in until 6.50am – which is too much of a push.
“Also I can work until 10pm and the park and ride closes at 8pm. It just won’t work.”
There are currently 730 spaces for staff in the car park and 400 for patients and visitors.
The visitor car park at the hospital became free of charge on January 1 but there are 5,500 staff at the complex.
The Scottish Government told NHS Grampian to reintroduce free parking at Aberdeen Royal Infirmary and Dr Gray’s Hospital in Elgin.
The move followed a high-profile Evening Express campaign to scrap the charges.
Source: http://www.eveningexpress.co.uk
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LPG car explodes as driver lights cigarette
January 24, 2009
Peter Tidbury had just filled his Peugeot 607 with 40 litres of gas at a service station and was driving at around 30mph.
He could smell gas in the car and passed it off as remnants from the petrol station but it was in fact a cloud of fuel in the cabin.
Mr Tidbury decided to smoke a cigarette and the second he ignited the lighter, its flame sparked a fireball.
The windows were blown out and the bonnet and boot were thrown open by the force of the blast.
Nearby householders were evacuated for fear of a further explosion and the windscreen was discovered 50 feet away.
His clothes melted on him and firefighters believe he survived serious injury or death because the seats took the force of the explosion.
He had bought the car privately for £5,000 three weeks earlier and two garage checks gave it a clean bill of health before he got behind the wheel.
Mr Tidbury, 55, an energy-saving company manager, who needed hospital treatment for minor flash burns, said: “It just wasn’t my day to die.”
Mr Tidbury, a widower from south-east London, drove to northern England last weekend to visiting his daughter and friends.
After a website to locate a filling station selling LPG, he filled up in Monk Bretton, Barnsley, South Yorkshire.
He said: “I was told you get a slight smell of gas when you fill up so thought nothing of it and wound the window down to freshen the air and put it back up again.
“I fancied a fag so wound the window down again slightly and then lit up. I was doing about 30mph and as I lit the cigarette there was an almighty explosion.
“The windows went out, the bonnet went up and the boot went up just as you see in the Hollywood movies. I was belted in and braked sharply. I can’t remember this but I was told that I was directing traffic around the car whilst my suit jacket was still smoking.
“The fireball singed me on my face, hands and legs and melted my jacket lining and some of my shirt. I looked as if a firework had exploded in my face.”
It is thought a leak in the pipe from the filler to the fuel tank allowed gas to seep into the car which ignited when he lit up.
He added: “When I walked past that car to get in the ambulance I thought that was not survivable. For me it is miraculous.”
Mr Tidbury has ruled out buying another LPG car and intends to quit smoking.
Fire station watch manager Neil McQuillan said: “The car looked like a hand grenade had gone off in it. How anyone can survive an explosion like that when the car is severely damaged is remarkable really.”
Source: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/motoring
By Paul Stokes
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Concerns about LPG Powered Cars in Enclosed Car Parks
January 23, 2009
LPG (under a variety of names “GPL” and “Auto gas” also) is widely used as a vehicle fuel in Far East, USA, Europe. USA, UK, Holland, Italy and France have particularly well developed infrastructures.
There are serious restrictions on LPG fuelled vehicles using ferries, tunnels, enclosed car parks. They do check and they turn back vehicles simply when found. All underground car parks in Europe and in the USA have signs banning for LPG powered vehicles.
Since 2001, LPG tanks and fuel systems are fitted with active safety mechanisms that better minimize the risk of explosion or leakage, making it safe to park vehicles also in multi-story and underground car parks. The Italy Interior Ministry allows all LPG vehicles with a safety system that complies to the ECE/ONU no. 67/01 Regulation to park on the first underground floor of multi-story car parks, even when connected to other underground floors.
LPG is pressurized and LPG tanks are sealed. Sealed tanks eliminate evaporative emissions or spillage. Using outage valves incorrectly during refueling, however, could cause excess vapor discharge.
The weight of LPG vapors at ambient temperatures is approximately 150 % the weight of air. If there is a leak, LPG vapors tend to sink to the ground and pool, creating a potentially hazardous situation. In some areas in North America, LPG vehicles are not allowed in enclosed car parks, tunnels. LPG is extremely volatile and burns twice as hot as a gasoline fire. Vehicle fuel tanks in LPG vehicles are of relatively thick-wall steel construction. In the event of a vehicle crash, they are much less prone to rupture or to cause fires than gasoline tanks.
LPG can explode when mixed with air in the range 1.8 % to 8.6 %. It requires a small ignition source, which could be a match, cigarette, electrical spark (think overhead catenary) or even a simple sharp strike against certain materials, particularly metals containing aluminum, magnesium, titanium etc.
You can smell a leak of LPG, but you have nowhere to go to escape in such place. LPG gas sinks so its difficult for the ventilation system to extract it. Spilt petrol falls to the ground, but then it evaporates. Auto gas is more explosive than petrol.
LPG is stored in a closed high pressure system so any breach will leak gas or liquid that rapidly gasifies leading to an air/gas mixture of potentially the correct proportions. Once ignited the explosion is highly likely to lead to fire and subsequent possible death by carbon monoxide poisoning as well as fire and shrapnel injuries.
Federal Council of Switzerland has officially banned LPG powered vehicles from multi-storey car parks! An appropriate sign was developed, but it cannot be used in German-speaking Switzerland because nobody understands the meaning of the French abbreviation GPL. Authorities has written to the Council to launch a debate on both a Switzerland-wide ban and an appropriate sign that can be understood throughout Switzerland, or even throughout Europe. The rules in force do not prohibit the imposition of individual bans. The owner or the management of a multi-storey car parks have the right to ban access to vehicles of this type by putting up an appropriate sign, and naturally such an arrangement would apply to foreign vehicles too.
In case of basement fires offer a degree of complexity and hazard beyond the normal building fire due to heat build up and the need for firefighting access being made from above. Enclosed car fires can develop to create an extreme heat and smoke environment, possibly compromising the structure. This may have a direct impact on not only occupants but also firefighter safety, especially in relation to search and rescue.
Insurance Companies in Europe and USA have continued the risk analysis and made recommendations on the construction, equipment and other safety measures of multi-storey enclosed car parks.
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NIGHTMARE parking problems
January 20, 2009
NIGHTMARE parking problems could come to an end as plans are put forward to build a commuter car park.
People living in Theydon Bois have not been able to park outside their own front door because of restrictions introduced to prevent commuters leaving cars in the area.
And commuters have been forced to drive into work rather than use the tube because there is nowhere to park their cars.
But a man from Epping could solve all of their problems with his plans to construct up to 280 spaces next to Theydon Bois tube station.
George Dilloway owns the former Old Forester Club land off Abridge road and decided the area would be ideal for a car park.
He said: “The council haven’t provided any options for car parking in the area and at the moment about 60 people are already dumping their cars there illegally everyday because there is nowhere else for them to go with all the double yellow lines. It’s a major problem.”
Mr Dilloway is hoping that Transport for London will agree to open up the entrance to the tube station to make the car park even more accessible for commuters.
He added: “If they expanded the entrance it could be on the same side of the road as the car park.
“It would also help ease the commuter problem in other areas like Epping where parking is also a nightmare. If you’re not there by 6.30am there’s no spaces left.”
The plans were welcomed by residents.
Clive Cooper from Theydon Park Road is unable to park his car outside his home because of yellow line restrictions introduced to stop commuter parking.
He said: “The restrictions prevent us from parking on our road between 10am and 11am. But that means I can’t leave my car there during the day because I can’t very well come home and move it during that time.
“If the car park solves the problem and means that these restrictions can be lifted then it’s a good thing.
“I can’t get the train to work at the moment and have to take the car, it’s nonsense. It’s affecting everyone and has caused so much disruption. Something definitely needs to be done.”
Alison Harvey from Cloverly Road in Ongar used to park in Theydon Bois before the restrictions were put in place.
But she was forced to use a friend’s driveway in Epping to get to work when the yellow lines were introduced.
She said: “I’m on maternity leave now but before I left I couldn’t find anywhere to park and had to use my friend’s drive. I didn’t want to do that forever and I was looking into somewhere else to park when I go back to work.
“It will be great if they do make a car park and will certainly put my mind at rest.”
But not everyone welcomed the plans.
A spokeswoman from Theydon Bois Action Group (TBAG) said: “The business plan for the car park is unsustainable, the car park would be of no benefit to local people, it is too far from the station and it will cause traffic problems on a dangerous stretch of the Abridge Road.
“It will not alleviate parking problems in the village as commuters will continue to park for free on our roads.
“It would have to be lit and the access road stretching uphill will cause a significant loss of openness on the Green Belt.”
People have until January 20 to submit an opinion on the car park application.
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