Re: energy in UK

On 2025-04-21 01:13, Don Y wrote:

On 4/20/2025 11:42 AM, Carlos E.R. wrote:

So, it alerts other traffic to your presence.  But, it doesn't fix
your problem, does it?  Or, does it summon "roadside assistance"?

>
It is anonymous, that's an important feature so that people don't get paranoid. But you can register a phone app that talks to it, if you want.

 So, its value to YOU is in making your "disablement" visible to
oncoming traffic -- without having to expose your body to an
assault.  If you were NOT inclined to "set out flares" (the original
version of the "triangles"), then you likely wouldn't bother with
this, either.

AFAIK, flares have never been used here.
My father used nothing, nothing was mandatory or recommended. Put on the lights: not the blinkers both left and right, cars did not have that feature. In an accident, it was recommended for another car to park perpendicular to the scene and illuminate it with his headlights.
Triangles became recommended and then mandatory after I got my driving license.
If you set neither triangles not beacon, and they find you, you get fined.

 

So the authorities get information at somewhere about all active beacons at a given time, and they can dispatch the police to go have a look. There is no promise that they do. But those electronic panels on the roads that tell you "accident ahead" should activate. Also information on car navigators like a TomTom (I did not see it).

 So, its secondary value to you is in alerting you of traffic problems
before you find yourself "stuck" in them.

Yep. But I don't know if this part is working yet.

 

I don't know if that emergency room is yet built and active.
>

If you have to exit the vehicle to check under the hood or
replace a tire, you are still at risk and a potential distraction
("rubber-neckers" -- gawkers)

>
Certainly. Just my case.
>
But there have been a bunch of people killed while they were just setting the triangles. The authorities thought that the beacon would help with those.

 Yes.  Motorists (and police officers) standing on roadways -- even far
off on the shoulder -- are regularly hit/killed by morons who have their
heads up their ass instead of eyes on the road!

Indeed.
It seems to happen more in the urban highways of Madrid, not so much on the long distance highways. In the former, traffic is going to/from work/home, and are mostly city folk, not necessarily used to long distance driving on highways.
Accidents seem to happen mostly near home, people feel safe and less alert.

 We had a young mother struck and killed while pushing her infant daughter
in a stroller (tram?) on the side of the road.  Some young kid who
felt it was more important to adjust the car stereo than drive the car...

Sigh.
Here people standing on the road have to mandatorily wear reflective vests. Some are hit precisely while putting it on.
In that situation, I keep my eye on incoming traffic.

 

AFAIK, we don't have those smaller transformers.

>
Every two residences (on one side of the street), a transformer is sited
between properties, on the property line (actually, an easement), on
the ground (our utilities are below grade).

>
I have seen them in Canada. But we don't have them. In my block, we had 4 naked wires on the roof, going from home to home. Now they are no longer naked, they are 4 thick cables in plastic, braided. At the small pole, they bring a connection down for some houses. No rule.

 In neighborhoods with overhead wiring, the high tension travels atop
"telephone poles" to similar transformers mounted high up.  From there,
the secondaries come down a pair of wires supported by a steel cable
to the rooftop "service entrance".

Yes, I have seen that in Canada.

But, the same issue of these small transformers exists to effectively block
high frequency signals from propagating far.

Yes, that needs special hardware passing on the signals.

 

On modern neighbourhoods, they are subterranean.

 Ditto, here.  Though our neighborhood is almost 50 years old.
Other parts of town have lots of flying services; you'd not want
to fly a kit there!
 It is apparently more costly to put them below grade.  Though I
wonder how much "damage" is avoided by doing so?  Perhaps the
cost (to the utility) is lower for flying services as any
damages to it can be offloaded to the "offender"?
 OTOH, each time they widen a roadway, there is considerable
cost in relocating the airborne services that travel along those
roads.  Often, very high tension, cross town feeds (which tend to
follow major arteries) on very tall, metallic towers.

Cost of progress.
--
Cheers, Carlos.