Abstract
CONCLUSIONS on this topic arrived at by Prof. R. A. Moyer, of Iowa State College, as set out in a paper read to the Highway Research Board, have been reported by Science Service, Washington, D.C. An exhaustive study of the skidding characteristics of motor-car tyres on various types of road surface indicates that the most important anti-skidding factor on the highway is to cover its surface with gritty particles so that it acts like sandpaper. The marked increase in the speed of vehicles on highways has led to a serious problem. The coefficients of friction between road surfaces and rubber tyres become smaller as the speed increases, and so skidding becomes easier. All stopping distances and centrifugal forces on curves increase as the square of the speed; that is, if the speed is doubled the shortest possible distance for stopping is increased four times and the necessary road friction is also increased four times. Highway engineers have been considering the possibility of building curves in spiral transmission fashion when the speed exceeds fifty miles an hour. In fast driving, in order to negotiate curves, the driver finds it easier to move from one side of the road to the other, but on blind curves this is a danger to approaching cars. Engineers are considering the possibility of building curved roads of such a shape that this tendency of drivers of fast cars may cease to be a menace to cars coming in the opposite direction. Prof. Moyer also points out that the application of the brakes when the car is going round a curve increases the tendency to skidding sideways but that the application of power decreases this tendency. For uniform braking the distribution of the load should be such that more weight falls on the back wheels than on the front wheels.
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Decreasing the Number of Motor Accidents due to Skidding. Nature 135, 112 (1935). https://doi.org/10.1038/135112c0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/135112c0