"Is this device doing anything at all besides inefficiently converting gasoline (fuelling the cars) into very expensive electricity?"

.. without a doubt.

I think the point may be to use that gasoline to not only propel autos (which it's being used for regardless) but to generate additional power.

You could place the ramp where people constantly brake - and then you'd only be stealing from the hybrids ;-)

Look at it this way: The cars will be driving if the device is present or not. So, if you put one of these in a relatively high traffic area, you'll at least be getting something back instead of nothing.
Remember, it's not as if they're planning to take a car, fill it with gas, then drive it back and forth over this thing to convert the gas into electricity. They're just trying to find a way to get some return out of something that currently doesn't.

Joe and anonymous,

The point you're missing is that if you make every car drive up a little ramp to generate this power, then most or all of those cars are going to have to expend a tiny bit of extra gasoline to make up for the lost momentum.

Odograph has a good point. If you can find a place where the vast majority of cars are braking, then conventional cars won't have to make up for anything. Hybrid cars will, though, because they recharge their batteries while braking, which would be reduced by the ramp.

I don't see a problem with it. It's just another form of gas tax that produces a useful product.

This is pretty wasteful, unless they put it after a steep decline or before a speed limit drop. Any place where people would normally be using their breaks. People with regenerative breaks are gonna hate this thing.

If the ramps were placed on a hill then the converted energy would be from gravity, not gasoline. Of course, this works even better if the cars are manual transmission so that the drivers can coast down the hill.

Agreed. If people always brake where the power generator is located, it will conserve energy.

As lame as speed bumps are (we are not responsible enough to slow down when we should, so we put caveman bumps in the road), wouldn't this make sense in that case? perhaps i haven't thought this through enough..
Graham

Now that is a fabulous idea, Graham. Speed bumps waste gas anyways, why not build a generator into every one of them? We could power half of the City!

Even if we put these at a place where people need to brake anyway, it will only work for the first car that hits it - the ones behind it will have to brake normally to avoid slamming into the car on the platforms.

Then, those cars that had to brake normally will have to expend more gas in order to ride over the platforms.

Maybe there are other applications? But its just a different kind of regenerative brake.

The speed bump idea is pretty good. Still, I have to wonder if the same areas wouldn't be better served with solar panels.

i think the whole point is to use these instead if current speed bumps and other traffic calming devices, in that case essentially the kinetic energy that woudl be wasted buy brakes converting it into heat, or shock absorbers absorbing the shock, which would also be converted to heat the energy goes in to the panel, still i don't so how it could make a lot of energy, perhaps enough to power the traffic and or street lights in the area, but like david said solar would prob be quicker, easier and cheaper. BTW anyone remember that idea MD had to create vertical wind turbines that woud make electricity from the wind of pasing cars?

As a paid-up Limey, and a Physicist at that, I can shed a little light on the motivation behind this. The device steals energy from passing cars, full stop (sorry, 'period').
Road Tax is a bit of a hot potato in the UK: we need it, no-one wants it, mainly because unless you live in London or Glasgow, road tax is just poll tax on wheels. Any government that introduced it, without spending all the cash and more on providing excellent public transport, would sink without trace at the next general election. So what better than to extract motorists' money in the form of energy? Most drivers aren't physicists and so will not be aware that they're being ripped off. Fiendishly clever, that. You might find my comment on the BBC News website about this, pointing out that solar panels are perfectly adequate power sources for traffic lights etc (yes even in the rainy UK)!

OK, I'm a little concerned here. If your high school physics is "rusty", why do you assert your opinions on energy policy and generation? If you don't understand what you're talking about, how can you talk about it authoritatively?

The folks here suggesting using these things in place of speed bumps are spot on. Putting them in every intersection in America will waste energy.

LA: no need to get nasty here, I am an architect and a contributor to treehugger, not a physicist. I asked a question and got an answer. Would you prefer that we did not raise such things because our degree does not qualify to discuss it? in a medium as ephemeral as a blog? Please.

Hay this is really great, just think of a busy freeway generating power for (at the Minimum) its own street light, I actually came up with a simler plan a few years back, just never new who to tell about it to get it going, hope.

Actually the ramp they show is way too big, you really only need a 1/2 inch air hose to roll over causing a spert of air to turn a micro turbine, lay a few of these on a major hwy and you got endless power.

ok.. shall we calculate the effiency of the use of the cars and trucks to transport goods and people and then factor on top of the productivity the added bonus of generating energy?.. come on now lets think logically here.

oh and by the way lloyd your website has made my rss list.. its awesome

The point of this device is not efficient energy conversion: the point is that the traffic lights and other devices that need plenty of power only occasionally won't needlessly use power when cars aren't around. That alone is a massive saving of electricity! The rest of the time cars aren't arround, the lights stay off. As long as these generators are placed far enough away from the signals they are meant to power to be useful, this is a great way to not need to run power lines/power poles out to remote places. (If the're too close, it's pointless: nobody needs a warning light or a traffic signal right at the place where it's needed--there'd be no time to react.) On top of that, it'll be more reliable than solar energy where it's often cloudy, or where the lights are needed at night.

I think this is a great idea.

Why not instead use piezoelectric plates at stop lights, stop signs, parking lots and parking garages? :)

Everyone has read the suggestions that a firm tire has better mileage than a soft one, yes? Proper inflation is a pretty important factor in good mileage, in fact.

And your mileage goes down on sand or gravel.

This has to do with a well-modelled principle called Rolling Resistance, the upshot of which can be summarized thusly:

"If you make it harder for the car to move forward, you cost the car mileage."

TANSTAAFL.

This system is robbing the drivers of fuel efficiency.

And I'm not even including increased road noise (slamming up and down ramps must be louder than a flat road), wear and tear from cycling your shocks over this sort of surface, or maintenance costs (a road with moving parts has to be more expensive to maintain than an inert, immobile one).

Bad call, Ripley.

Berkana - that application would better be served by inductive sensors controlling signal activation, not actual power generators.

We have such sensors on some bridge lights around here - they blink amber for caution only when a car has recently passed over the sensor some distance down the road.

Conservation of energy does apply.

Cars are notoriously in inefficient. Most of the potential energy contained in gas is wasted in incomplete combustion, friction and heat. Only a small amount the total energy contained in fuel actually contributes to your car moving, especially at low speeds. This is basically why hybrids are more efficient.

I believe this ramp would help recoup the wasted energy when non hybrid cars are moving at low speeds. My guess 0-12kms/h would be the sweet spot.

That’s a lot of power that could be generated from millions of vehicles in rush hour traffic moving this speed. That being said, it would be a bad investment, as these ramps would only inefficiently steal energy from hybrid and electric cars. (Assuming we all make the conversion soon.)

Its also worth noting that even if they wanted too they couldn’t put these ramps in a high speed areas as they would drastically reduce the lifetime of vehicle suspension and tires.

This idea should be applied to busy sidewalks. It would generate power as well as reduce back problems.

> Speed bumps waste gas anyways, why not build a generator into every one of them?

Because bicycling over speed bumps is bad enough without passing cars making them go up and down as well.

This looks like lots of fun on a bike.

[i] Of course, this works even better if the cars are manual transmission so that the drivers can coast down the hill.[/i]

Actually whether it's a manual or automatic you're actually using more fuel when you're idling than when you're decelerating in gear. When you're decelerating the fuel injectors turn off because it's not necessary to keep the engine running. When you're coasting in neutral they injectors are working to keep the engine running.

Hmmm. Why not just invest in cheap guns and steal DIRECTLY from people's wallets as they pass by (like they do in London, but without the guns)?

This device does not "produce" electricity out of thin air. It merely steals it from some to give to all - pretty socialistic, so, it, naturally, won't work.

Solar energy is the ONLY solution. All products such as this one STEAL development money from solar, and thus, should be shunned.

Huge amounts of energy from transit vehicles are turned into vibration. Think of how a passing truck vibrates the ground. Put you ear to a building and you can feel it humm from traffic. All this has already been "robbed". Using piezo electric transducers (crystals that convert kinetic energy to current and vice versa) might work as well or better while introducing no additional rolling resistance.

The other thing that came to mind on this is how in some parts of both the US and Canada they use "rumble strips" when you are approaching a traffic light so you know to slow down. Basically nothing more than slightly raised strips of plastic or asphalt spaced closely so you hear a "rumble" as you drive over. I would think that and the speed bump idea would be the best ways to use this idea since both rely on raised bumps for safety reasons and efficiency is not considered. Although it would probably be too costly to try, what about turning all the "Bott's Dots" into energy generators? :)

Wow - like 99% are offtopic posting on this..

This should be classified as an alternative to toll booths, not as a way to generate energy.

It provides the same function as the DOT stopping you and taking a tablespoon of gasoline as a road toll.. except its more efficient than a manned toll booth & more accurate than some per axle charge at properly giving those with the heaviest loads the highest rates.

The ONLY question are some hard facts on how much gas it takes & how much energy it creates.. and i suppose how useful can than energy be used if its in a remote location.