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Figure 19 Alternative ELECAT configuration
A slightly longer configuration than currently allowed in the UK for articulated vehicles, would allow ELECATs
to transport 8 conventional cars and 7 low profile cars in a single vehicle. The longer ELECAT would be purely
restricted to highway use.
5.4.4
Road space saving for the ELECAT
Another advantage of the ELECAT concept is that it substantially increases road space or traffic capacity
without building more roads. An ELECAT containing 8 cars with a 2 second interval between successive
vehicles would effectively increase road space by a factor of approximately 5 using conventional sized
hatchback cars
47
or by a factor of 10 with the additional use of low profile cars. This is illustrated in figure 20.
Figure 20 Road space for transporting cars on the ELECAT compared with
conventional and LOCI cars
Driving ELECATs instead of cars in one lane (top row) would add up to 5 lanes of conventional cars and 5
lanes of low profile cars (remaining rows).
47 At 100kph the distance between vehicles with a 2 second gap should be in the region of 60 metres, so 1 ELECAT 18 metres long would
take up 78 metres of carriageway space whereas 7 cars 4 metres long would take up 448 metres, more than 5 times the distance
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