Практикум по развитию кросскультурного взаимодействия студентов транспортного факультета. Учебное пособие

calculated by combining already-known engine vibration, etc., which the acoustic radiation factor of the body structure (interior sound pressure vector per unit of exciting force) at the point at which vibration such as that of the engine acts on the car body.

Powerplant influence. An alternative type of four-cylinder engine having a different engine inclination (powerplant B) was mounted in a car in which a similar engine with optimally designed engine mountings (powerplant A) was to be mounted. A large increase in booming noise in the car's compartment was analytically determined to occur between 3600-4800 rpm for powerplant В vs A. Experimental results confirmed this expectation.

The calculation included vertical and lateral inputs from the front and rear engine

.mountings. Longitudinal exciting force, airborne inputs of engine and exhaust noise, and .exciting forces of powertrain, rear suspension, and exhaust system were omitted because their influence was negligible in the problem range of 3600-4800 rpm. Despite these omissions, however, close agreement was observed between calculated and measured values.

Text. The future of off-highway vehicles design

The Society of Automotive Engineers recognizes in the family of power equipment a wide variety of machines designated as off-highway machines. Perhaps the largest group of mobile equipment in the variety of types, models and applications these machines are predominantly multi-utility work tools in contrast to vehicles for transporting goods or people.

Off-highway machines work on all types of surfaces (rocks to sand even in shallow water), in all kinds of weather (rain, snow, sun), from —65°F to +140CF, at sea level and above 14,000 feet, and even below the ocean's surface itself. They work to mine iron ore, sand, bauxite, and copper ore, to excavate hard granite rock, marble or sandstone, to handle trees in the forest, grains in the field, foodstuff in the food industry and any material that man desires to lift, transport, or handle. Machines range in size from small 2 hp units through mid ranges of 50 to 1200 hp machines weighing

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as much as 400,000 lb, to the large mining shovels and draglines of 2200 hp, and 3,000,000 lb weight. The machines are used for all types of work and are habitually tailored to do a variety of special jobs that need to be done.

Although these machines are all classified as off-highway, the group can be divided into machines predominantly devoted to agricultural work, light industrial, construction equipment, and logging and mining machinery.

In our 20th century we have developed the mechanized farm machinery, the offhighway construction and material handling machinery, and the mining machinery to increase man's productive capability thousands of times. More importantly, he can also utilize those areas of the world to grow crops in quantity which formerly could not be extensively used because of a short growing season or a climatic condition that did not allow enough time for either preparation or harvest. Machines have also allowed man to harvest the forests in a productive manner with conservation and an improved yield in practice. The whole process has been evolutionary, and progressively many forces have developed the product to bring us to the level that exists now.

Mechanical machines of the future will be built with modular construction, not so much to provide for quicker field repairs, but rather because good shop repair facilities will be more safely controlled than field areas, and initial manufacture will be less expensive through modular component build.

We will see a heavy emphasis for machine procedures and development that involve social and technical attention from engineers, scientists, academicians, professional and technical societies, operators, contractors, mechanics — virtually all sectors of society. It has become apparent that a great deal of competence is required of all machine operators, as well as those who are involved in maintenance and repair. It will become increasingly important for persons to be licensed and qualified not only in the technical areas, but also in safety-related areas.

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Text. Roads to change

Can Europe's transport system meet the demands placed on it by economic and political integration? Abel Matutes, who is responsible for transport and energy at the European Commission, is optimistic on this score.

The advent of the single market heralded a turning point in the Common Transport Policy.

From 1993 onwards the current policy, which comprises a series of modal policies aimed principally at removing the chief national barriers and eliminating other technical, social and tax barriers, will gradually make way for a new, overall approach designed to optimize the European Union's transport system.

The single market is a necessary but insufficient condition for dealing with the adverse effects of the growth in demand and the challenges posed by the creation of a larger European transport sector. Demand for transport has grown steadily over the last 20 years, particularly in intra-Union traffic (with an average annual increase of 2.3% for goods and 3.1 % for passengers).

This trend is set to continue or even gather pace in the years ahead with the impetus given by the single market in the shape of liberalisation measures and the introduction of sabotage, structural changes in Europe's economy, and the democratisation of the Eastern European countries and the opening up of their economies.

The increase in demand for transport has not been even. There are marked imbalances in the structure of traffic. With a 25-30% increase in prospect by the year 2000, the European Union has to seek solutions to the problems this entails. The Union's economy is liable to suffer if that growth in traffic is not properly managed.

The increase in traffic and the stagnation of investment in infrastructure are the root of major problems such as congestion of certain routes, serious environmental damage and heightened safety risks.

The European Commission intends to encourage other modes of transport such as rail inland waterway or coastal shipping that are kinder to the environment but as

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yet under-utilized. Their growth potential is enormous. If they are used more rationally and efficiently and if they are tailored better to users' requirements, they would provide attractive alternatives to other modes of transport and help relieve congestion on major routes.

The fact that the various networks and transport modes do not mesh with each other is another impediment to the smooth functioning of the transport system.

This is why the creation of trans-European networks postering the interconnection and interoperability of national networks has become a priority of the European Commission's White Paper on "Growth, Competitiveness and Employment." Published in 1993, the White Paper is effectively an economic and social programme for the European Union, designed to tackle the problem of unemployment.

Discussions are in progress with the Member States in order to identify the final projects to be selected. The next step will be the financing of the networks. It is considered that by 1999 investment of ECU 220 billion will be necessary. The community could mobilize ECU 90 billion, including the contributions of the Member States. Now the main effort will consist in mobilizing private investment.

I am confident that very soon the results of this effort will be successful.

Abel Matutes is European Commissioner for Transport and Energy

Text. How Good Drivers Get Killed

By Ralph Kinney Bennett

Reader's Digest

A special report from Reader's Digest and the National Safety Council

On a sunny May afternoon, contractor Philip Swann, 48, drove west on two-lane Route 234 toward his home in Newburg, Md. Three employees were in the pickup truck with him, hitching a ride home. Swann was looking forward to dinner with his wife and three sons.

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As Swann headed west, an eastbound Buick veered onto his side of the road. At the wheel was a 16-year-old girl driving on her learner's permit. She was trying to pass a minivan, but had failed to see Swann's pickup. The vehicles slammed into each other headon. Swann's truck turned upside down and exploded in flames. Swann and one of his passengers were killed; the other two were severely burned. The teenager and her mother, who was also in the car, were badly injured.

A simple error on a clear day, by a novice driver on a straight stretch of road, cost two men their lives and left three young boys fatherless. Every day in America good drivers, obeying speed limits and the rules of the road, are nonetheless injured or killed by careless, drunk, inexperienced or reckless drivers.

So how do these roadway accidents happen? And is there anything you can do to avoid them?

Reader's Digest asked statisticians at the National Safety Council to analyze the nation's 41,611 traffic deaths in 1999 (the latest available data). They were asked to determine common ways that "good" driversany of those found not at fault in an accident - were killed. Here are the sobering facts.

Head-On Impact

The kind of accident that killed Philip Swann and his friend is a top killer of innocent drivers. Head-ons killed 42 percent of the good drivers in our survey. For those behind the wheel, death by an oncoming auto can be particularly devastating because of the laws of physics: the speed of both cars multiplies the violence of the collision. And they are often the most sudden and unavoidable. "It doesn't appear that Swann had time to take evasive action. It was over in a second," says Maryland State Police Sgt. Randy Stephens, an accident investigator.

Surprisingly, our study shows that only six percent of head-on collisions were caused by drivers passing at inopportune times. Twenty percent occurred on curves where often a driver going too fast veered into the opposite lane. But the great majority, 63 percent, happened when drivers were steering straight. The crashes were likely caused by drivers who were distracted by other things (kids, changing a CD, talking on a cell phone), or who fell asleep, or nearly so, and drifted into oncoming traffic. We found that more

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than half of these head-ons occurred in daylight and more than 80 percent of them in dry weather. "That tracks with our experience," says Stephens. "More fatal accidents of every type seem to occur in nice weather when drivers may relax their guard; in bad weather, the majority of drivers tend to be more cautious, more attentive."

Is there anything you can do to reduce the risk of meeting another car head-on? There is one measure that eliminates much of the risk. Forget the scenic route and head for the highway. Use major highways where traffic flow is separated by medians, and access is controlled by onand off-ramps.

Deadliest Sign

Perhaps the most familiar of all traffic signs - the red octagonal stop sign - turns out to be a significant risk to good drivers.

Sixteen percent of drivers in our analysis were killed because another driver either did not see, purposely ignored, or showed poor judgment at a stop sign. For example, says Lt. Scott Hunter, traffic-safety coordinator for the North Carolina Highway Patrol, drivers often stop or slow at a sign and then pull out without bothering to check the intersection for an oncoming car. Or, they misjudge an approaching car's distance and speed and pull in front of it.

Hunter and other police officers advise extra wariness when approaching intersections, even when you have the right of way. Their best tip: as you approach and see a car about to cross or enter the road you're on, don't just look at the car to see if it comes to a full stop. Check the driver too. Is he or she looking your way? Does he or she appear distracted? It could be your best warning of an accident waiting to happen.

Red for Danger

It was a clear June evening in Boca Raton, Fla.; the sun was still up, Neil Marvin was at the wheel of his Mercury Grand Marquis with his wife, Paulette, and four friends. Marvin, 66, stopped at a traffic light, and then pulled out routinely when it changed to green. Just then, a Mercedes-Benz driven by Robert Carratelli ran the red light at a speed estimated by police at 80 m.p.h.

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The Mercedes slammed into the left side of the Mercury, instantly killing Marvin, his wife and all four friends. Carratelli, who had minor injuries, is now appealing a vehicular-homicide conviction.

Red-light running turned out to be another deadly accident for innocent drivers, killing eight percent of them. When the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety monitored a busy intersection in Arlington County, Virginia, for several months, they found a driver running the light every 12 minutes on average. It was as high as once every five minutes during peak rush hours. "That's more than 100 chances a day for an unsuspecting motorist to become a crash victim," says Institute safety expert Richard Retting.

Red-light running is on the rise nationwide. In a six-year study, the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety found that deadly crashes at red lights increased at more than three times the rate of all other types of fatal auto accidents.

To avoid them, the best advice remains the lesson motorists learned from their high school drivered teachers: "Even when your light has changed to green, take one more look both ways before proceeding," says Lt Steve Farago, chief traffic officer of the Mesa, Ariz., Police Department "You`ve got to protect yourself. Too many drivers consider the yellow light a last chance' to get through an intersection rather than a caution signal. We're trying to cut down on red-light accidents by reminding drivers to brake on yellow, stop on red."

Even if you're tooling around a shopping-mall parking lot, there are traffic signs you must obey. Yet many drivers simply blow them off. As a result, a variety of other "failure to yield" collisions - beyond traffic signs and stop lights - make up smaller percentages of driver deaths, but taken together, they can be serious killers. And they occur where there are no stop signs or traffic lights, at unmarked side roads, in driveways, and at entries to shopping-center parking lots. These kinds of failure-to- yield accidents took the lives of 11 percent of our good drivers who had the right of way.

The most important conclusion to draw from the statistics compiled by the National Safety Council is this: stick to major highways whenever you can. An

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overwhelming 86 percent of traffic fatalities happen on side roads and byways. Only 14 percent occur on major highways, according to statistics from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.

Says driving-safety consultant Lawrence Lonero, of Northpoint Associates in Ontario, Canada: "My wife and I took a trip throughout the eastern and southeastern United States on the interstates and, amazing as it may seem, we never saw an accident in 5000 miles of driving."

And most obvious of all: wear your seat belt, all the time period. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration says seat belts reduce the risk of fatal injury by 45 percent in a car and 60 percent in a light truck.

But even with every safety precaution taken, says Gary Magwood, a driving educator and a contributor to Drivers.com, a driver-safety website, motorists must remember that the driver's seat is an inherently unsafe place to be. "Learn to use your eyes to look far down the road. Learn to spot problems before they happen," he says. "And remember that the safest vehicles on the best-designed highways on clear, sunny days are driven by fallible human beings who can crash into each other."

From the July 2001 issue of Reader's Digest. Click here to subscribe.

Copyright © 2001 The Readers's Digest Association, Inc. All rights reserved.

Text. Road Safety: A Global Issue

Foreign diplomats, journalists and businesspeople, especially those who come to Moscow for the first time, are not only amazed by the rapid development of the Russian capital but are also surprised at all the cars on Moscow roads and all the traffic jams. Is it possible to solve or at least to mitigate this acute problem in the foreseeable future? What role will the State Road Inspectorate play in solving it? Diplomat asked Lieut. Gen. V.N.Kiryanov, chief of the Russian Interior Ministry's Road Safety Department, these questions.

The problems of metropolitan (and not only metropolitan) roads are the reverse side of the coin of Russia's fast economic growth. Intercity and intracity traffic is

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increasing; ever new company and private cars are being purchased, whereas the construction of new federal and municipal highways, garages and parking lots is lagging behind. That's why the drivers should take their traffic problems philosophically and just consider them a fact of life. Besides, you cannot do away with the Russian winter or construct freeways in downtown areas overnight." While in my car, I study official papers and other office documents, I find that the situation is very much the same in other countries, too: a car may be comfortable, but it is also an inconvenience.

There is another aspect of it, however: road accidents in Russia. This is a very grave socioeconomic and demographic problem jeopardizing this country's national security. Every day, an average of 95 people (including 4 children) are killed in car crashes and nearly 700 people (including 67 teenagers) are injured. No other country in the world suffers such human losses. The yearly economic damage Russia sustains as a result of traffic accidents and injuries accounts for 2. 4 - 2. 6 percent of the GDP.

This worrying situation calls for solutions at the federal level. Now something is beginning to be done, however. In his 2005 message to the Federal Assembly, President Vladimir Putin expressed concern over the human losses due to road accidents. The road traffic safety situation and measures to improve state control over road traffic safety enforcement were discussed at a meeting of the Presidium of Russia's State Council in November, 2005. It was decided to develop a federal target program of road traffic safety enforcement in Russia till the year 2012. The program was drafted and approved recently. The program should reduce human losses on the roads by 1. 5 times. The joint efforts of all the ministries concerned are now needed to work out a single plan of action that not so much stipulates overseeing functions as sets out concrete measures that will eliminate the causes of traffic accidents. It is, for instance, necessary not only to be more demanding at the stage of examinations.

To what extent can foreign experience in organizing safe road traffic be used in Russia? I want to stress once again: road safety is a global issue. According to the World Health Organization (WHO), about 1.3 million people are killed in traffic accidents every year, to say nothing of the enormous economic losses. Since 2003,

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global road safety has been put on the agenda of the UN General Assembly. Four resolutions proposing a series of measures to overcome the present crisis have already been adopted.

I must: say that Russia takes an active stance in discussing this issue. We already have some success stories in several regions and our experience may be useful in many countries. In January this year, the UN disseminated a report on Russia's implementation of the basic provisions of the abovementioned UN General Assembly resolutions. In response to the appeal contained in the resolutions to adopt laws addressing the main risk factors (excessive speeding, nonuse of seat belts, driving under the influence of alcohol, etc.), a series of bills were introduced in the State Duma. They envisage tougher penalties for violations of the traffic rules. At the same time, we fully share the UN's position that the problem cannot be solved by harsher penalties alone. This is a complex task. All elements - the drivers, the cars, the roads, and the environment - will have to be dealt with.

Mr. Kiryanov, do you make use of the concrete experience of other countries to ensure road safety in Russia?

Absolutely. Developed industrial nations were confronted with the problem of traffic accidents earlier than we were. Numerous problems of road traffic safety are either solved or being successfully solved there. That's why we just cannot ignore the best foreign practices. I myself have found it very useful to familiarize myself with the situation in New York and Singapore. Our staff members visiting foreign countries study the experience gained by their colleagues. It is not a matter of blindly imitating Western Europe or America: there are some specifics in this country that must be taken into consideration. We review the information we get and make use of what we find worthy of attention in shaping federal policies on enforcing road safety. I'll give you an example. In many countries, for instance, in Great Britain, Germany and France, video surveillance cameras are widely used to monitor the most hazardous stretches of road. Combined with other measures, this system has made it possible to considerably reduce the number of traffic fatalities on European roads in only a few years. If the legislators endorse and approve our initiatives, we plan to introduce similar systems in this

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