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Ramp Creates Power As Cars Pass

Ant wrote to mention a BBC News report on a ramp that generates power via passing cars. From the article: "Dorset inventor Peter Hughes' Electro-Kinetic Road Ramp creates around 10kW of power each time a car drives over its metal plates. More than 200 local authorities had expressed an interest in ordering the £25,000 ramps to power their traffic lights and road signs, Mr Hughes said."

18 of 426 comments (clear)

  1. Ramp up by dotslashdot · · Score: 2, Funny

    Ramp up production, but make sure you have an exit strategy.

  2. It gets worse by tkdog · · Score: 5, Funny

    That's not even the bad part. Those damn government bastards have installed "friction" all over the place and it is WARMING THE PLANET. It's a plot I tell you, a plot.

  3. Next, the toll to enter the turnpike... by craXORjack · · Score: 5, Funny

    You'll have to drive your car on a giant hamster wheel attached to a generator for two minutes.

    --
    Liberals call everyone Nazis yet they are the closest thing to it.
  4. Thank you, Sir Isaac Clueless by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Funny

    Apparently, physics was not your major. The same goes for the clueless mods that modded you up.

  5. Re:Great idea! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Funny

    1.21 jiggawatts!?!?! what was i thinking????

  6. Re:Yes and no by one9nine · · Score: 5, Funny

    Naturally this is leaving aside the question of whether speed humps are worthwhile or not.

    Depends on how drunk you are and how ugly she is.

  7. Re:how about if they only pop up by ryanvm · · Score: 5, Funny

    But those of us with hybrid cars are already reclaiming that energy...

    Hmmm. Maybe they could design a ramp that's powered by your own sense of self satifaction...

  8. Simpsons by John+Frink · · Score: 2, Funny

    In this house we obey the laws of THERMODYNAMICS!!!

    --
    Who is this Jimmy character, and why was he cracking corn in the first place?
  9. This is THE dumbest idea I've ever seen... by birge · · Score: 4, Funny

    You need power for the lights, which need electricity, which costs money, so: you take electricity it from cars, which have kinetic energy, which they get from chemical energy (with losses) which their drivers get from money. If only there were a way for the government to get money directly from it's citizens...

  10. Re:Great idea! by slashname3 · · Score: 2, Funny

    So lets get this straight. I drive over these things which is going to cost me more in gasoline (basic conservation of energy laws working here) and then they are going to sell me the same energy to run the lights at my house? Great, now I get to pay for this energy twice, once with expensive gasoline, and again on the power bill which no doubt will have the variable fuel charge applied. To say nothing of the added wear and tear on my vehicle.

    Are these guys working on a perpetual motion machine also?

  11. Re:Is it safe for motorcycles? by AndroidCat · · Score: 2, Funny
    I question how much energy my motorcycle and I (260 kg together) are really going to generate.

    If they can capture the sonic energy as you scream when you're catapulted into the air by the non-yielding (to a mere 260 kg) bump, quite a bit... Damn, imagine body-surfing across a stretch of those things after laying the bike down!

    --
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  12. Re:Great idea! by nizo · · Score: 4, Funny

    Luckily if you drive backwards down the onramp back onto the freeway your car gains energy.

  13. Re:Gas powered ramp??? by cbiltcliffe · · Score: 2, Funny

    Probably lights that aren't even on, but light up red as you approach them. Once the power from your passing is used up, the red light goes out, and you can proceed.

    Now we actually can have traffic lights that always turn red as you approach. Or, at least, more of them.......

    --
    "City hall" in German is "Rathaus" Kinda explains a few things......
  14. Re:Great idea! by heinousjay · · Score: 2, Funny

    It's a way to turn gas into electricity, and needs to be depolyed where cars want to slow down.

    Like, I don't know, traffic lights? I mean, I only read the summary, so I don't know the whole story, but...

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  15. Re:Great idea! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Funny

    You're right. But how long before we see entire staircases of this stuff with signage reading, "For Obese People Only"?

    I've always wondered why they didn't add generators to revolving doors and turnstiles. Hmmph, jogging paths with powergenerating turnstiles lined up like New Jersey tollway stations, anyone?

  16. Re:Thanks by Mark_MF-WN · · Score: 1, Funny

    Nice save. No one will ever notice that you're trying to participate in a discussion about which you deliberately know nothing.

  17. Re:Thanks by 91degrees · · Score: 2, Funny

    I remember being as arrogant as you.

  18. Re:Power vs. Energy by pnewhook · · Score: 2, Funny
    But consider this; How many times have you seen the power go out and the traffic lights are down?

    Where do you live? Mexico?

    Power has gone out two, maybe three times in 20 years here.

    --
    Tesla was a genius. Edison however was a overrated hack who liked to torture puppies.