...Why would you expect it to be a railgun, Subby?

maybe i'm lost....it's possible...but doesn't this headline fit better with the snowball gun story?

Railguns... speedbumps.



So.. confused....

not to mention the sad tag...

Well I wouldn't have been expecting it to be, until I read the headline.

Also not a hamburger...
or a hot chick....
or a basement dwelling farker.....

If this link had pontoons it would float.

One of the things I love about the idiot drivers in Houston is the fact that people in big (ostensibly offroad-capable) vehicles like SUVs and pickups come to nearly complete stops when going over 3" tall road bumps... It's a goddamn truck FFS....

TFA sounds like a neat idea, although i'm seeing many such signs w/ solar collectors on them around here.

Trying to figure out how these things actually work - the webpages TFA linked to are too general.. Some kind of inductive coupling?

Your headline went over my head too, subby.

As for TFA... That sounds like an awful lot of power from a speedbump. I hope it's true, but I'm skeptical.

looks like there are small plates that move up and down when driven over, and these are used to produce power via a 'regenerative braking' implementation...

Cool idea. I wonder how long until someone applies for a government grant to hire people to drive priuses (priui?) over it repeatedly as another clean renewable energy source.

Serious question:

For the Fark mechanical/electrical engineers out there... doesn't this seem like a stupid way to try to create "free" power? I mean... isn't this just making the gasoline-powered engine work harder to drive over something?

hp6sa: For the Fark mechanical/electrical engineers out there... doesn't this seem like a stupid way to try to create "free" power? I mean... isn't this just making the gasoline-powered engine work harder to drive over something?

If it's used in an area where people are slowing down, the engine is already at idle. It's reducing wear and heat on the brake pads (while likely increasing wear on the suspension).

hp6sa: Serious question:

For the Fark mechanical/electrical engineers out there... doesn't this seem like a stupid way to try to create "free" power? I mean... isn't this just making the gasoline-powered engine work harder to drive over something?

Not quite. With a real speed bump, you lose energy ascending, but then gain some of it back on the backside of the bump -- go over a bump sometime without braking, and you will find that your speed is little changed.

So this is quite possibly the least efficient method of generating electricity ever.

WHAR BFG!!!?? WHAR???

hp6sa: Serious question:

For the Fark mechanical/electrical engineers out there... doesn't this seem like a stupid way to try to create "free" power? I mean... isn't this just making the gasoline-powered engine work harder to drive over something?

TFA says these would go in places where people are already going to be stopping or slowing down, like at stop signs. In a way, it saves the drivers wear and tear on their brakes in a minor way.

MrSteve007: If it's used in an area where people are slowing down, the engine is already at idle. It's reducing wear and heat on the brake pads (while likely increasing wear on the suspension).

Bingo. Also, the manufacturers of these things want to go even further than that. Per the article, they don't want to use it as a speed bump, they want to use it in areas where you're slowing down before stopping altogether; i.e. they'd turn this thing on when you're pulling up to a red light. This thing would be terrible at throttling speeds; people would just speed up as they approached it.

Normally I'd mock the shiat out of something like this, but if it's going somewhere where stopping altogether is a necessity, then yeah, why the hell not. My only potential beef with these things would be cost of deployment vs. just putting up another solar plant somewhere.

wjllope: One of the things I love about the idiot drivers in Houston is the fact that people in big (ostensibly offroad-capable) vehicles like SUVs and pickups come to nearly complete stops when going over 3" tall road bumps... It's a goddamn truck FFS....TFA sounds like a neat idea, although i'm seeing many such signs w/ solar collectors on them around here.Trying to figure out how these things actually work - the webpages TFA linked to are too general.. Some kind of inductive coupling?

yes, farking yes

You're in a god damn truck, you don't need to crawl over the rail tracks, heck if you went over them at about 30 mph you would barely feel them because your freaking suspension would be able to do it's job.

/got stuck on the 45N HOV behind some fool who was doing 45-55 the whole way down

hp6sa: Serious question:

For the Fark mechanical/electrical engineers out there... doesn't this seem like a stupid way to try to create "free" power? I mean... isn't this just making the gasoline-powered engine work harder to drive over something?

yes and no, in theory you could use large sections of the freeway to do something similar in a way that wouldn't impede or slow down the traffic

but this is just a speedbump, so they could be used anywhere they normally create speedbumps. Imagine if you were a strip mall location, your parking lot could work for you.

Rude Turnip: hp6sa: Serious question:

For the Fark mechanical/electrical engineers out there... doesn't this seem like a stupid way to try to create "free" power? I mean... isn't this just making the gasoline-powered engine work harder to drive over something?

TFA says these would go in places where people are already going to be stopping or slowing down, like at stop signs. In a way, it saves the drivers wear and tear on their brakes in a minor way.

Okay, thanks all.

Railgun? Speedbumps?

BANG! choo choo!

Didn't sound like they were putting them in anywhere they wouldn't be putting a speed bump in anyway. If there's going to be one there might as well make it do something other than just slow me down.