Guided Bus [was: Epping-Ongar news?]
 

In uk.local.east-anglia Paul Oter wrote:
wrote in message
...
In uk.local.east-anglia Robin May wrote:
wrote the following in:


The route 66 bus from Ipswich station to Martlesham has a short
section in one of the Ipswich suburbs where it runs between guides
and thus the driver doesn't have to steer. Is this what the
question was about?

How do these guides work?

There are a couple of little wheels either side at the front of the
bus, these wheels are horizontal with the spindles vertical. I guess
they're around 9" diameter and a foot or so from the ground. These run
against a raised guide either side of the track the bus runs along.
Presumably there's a servo system that detects pressure on the wheels
and thus steers the bus.


Do they look anything like those in like the guidewheel shown in the second
photo at http://www.camcycle.org.uk/newsletters/49/article1.html (you'll
need to scroll down a bit) ? That photo is taken from Cambridgeshire County
Council's own publicity. It would be useful to know whether the Ipswich
scheme is similar to the one proposed for Cambridgeshire

Yes, they look pretty similar to me.

N.B. this is all from memory, I'm not a regular user of the route 66
bus.

Hey, a quick search turned up the following pictu-

http://www.hitchams.suffolk.sch.uk/t.../jr/page3.html

I'm sure more dilligent searching would turn up a whole lot more about
the route 66, it's been a test bed for all sorts of hi tech ideas.

--
Chris Green )

Guided Bus [was: Epping-Ongar news?]
 

In uk.local.east-anglia "Steve Naïve" wrote:
wrote in

Yes, they look pretty similar to me.

N.B. this is all from memory, I'm not a regular user of the route 66
bus.

Hey, a quick search turned up the following pictu-

http://www.hitchams.suffolk.sch.uk/t.../jr/page3.html

I'm sure more dilligent searching would turn up a whole lot more about
the route 66, it's been a test bed for all sorts of hi tech ideas.

Is this because the BT Martelsham labs are close by, or is that just
coincidence?

I think there was some input from BT in the early days but there's no
direct involvement now as far as I know.

--
Chris Green )

Guided Bus [was: Epping-Ongar news?]
 

Paul Oter wrote:
[...] It would be useful to know whether the Ipswich
scheme is similar to the one proposed for Cambridgeshire

I don't think the Ipswich one concreted over existing rail lines or
runs outside its guides down one of the busiest roads... the Camb
one looks totally and utterly mad. Wouldn't light rail be more
effective?

FU to east-anglia only.

--
MJR/slef My Opinion Only and possibly not of any group I know.