I'm all for better highways...

But mandates for pedal placement? Bye bye heel-toe in any new cars is my guess (See last line of article).

http://www.detroitnews.com/article/20120315/AUTO01/203150373/1148/rss25

March 15, 2012 at 1:00 am Senate highway bill passes Two-year, $109 billion legislation includes auto safety regs boost

By David Shepardson
Detroit News Washington Bureau
1 Comments

Washington — The U.S. Senate on Wednesday approved a two-year, $109 billion bill to pay for highway construction and boost auto safety regulations.

The bill was approved by a 74-22 vote and now goes to the House.

Sen. Carl Levin, D-Detroit, praised the bill, saying it "will improve the mobility of people and commerce while reducing traffic congestion and improving air quality."

Levin said the bill will help state transportation agencies that "need to be able to do long-term planning, and a two-year bill helps that cause, and is surely better than the short-term extensions we have been living under."

Levin said Michigan will get more than $1.1 billion per year for two years for highways, "slightly more than under the current bill." Michigan will get $131.3 million per year for two years in mass transit, "a little more than we got last time in formula funds."

On Tuesday, the Senate rejected an amendment sponsored by Sen. Debbie Stabenow, D-Lansing, that would have extended tax breaks for many clean energy efforts — including cellulosic ethanol and biodiesel — that would have cost about $12 billion. The Senate split 49-49 on the measure, but it needed 60 yes votes to clear a procedural hurdle.

The Senate also rejected a bid to boost incentives for natural gas vehicles.

Both Levin and Stabenow voted for the overall bill.

Senate leaders agreed last week not to consider an amendment filed by Sen. Bob Corker, R-Tenn., that would have taken the remaining funding in the $25billion auto factory retooling program and used it to fix roads.

A fight over some of the funds — known as the Advanced Vehicle Technology Manufacturing program — in September nearly led to a government shutdown.

Automakers are urging Congress to reject the provision in the Senate bill that would hike fines to $250 million for failing to recall vehicles properly, up from about $17 million.

The Senate bill also mandates safety belts on all commercial buses.The auto safety bill would create a hotline for mechanics, dealers and auto workers to call to make anonymous complaints of safety problems with vehicles.

It would also require new regulations on pedal placement, pushbutton ignition and electronic performance issues.

I expect a ruling soon that will only allow for two pedals and one has to be a giant oversized brake pedal.

Disheartening. Personally I've been wondering how long before people start seriously talking about taking "older" cars off the road. I want new highways, but less nannying, is that too much to ask?!

jrw1621 wrote: I expect a ruling soon that will only allow for two pedals and one has to be a giant oversized brake pedal.

I expect a ruling soon that allows for only one giant pedal. The brakes are automatically applied when you release it.

Drewsifer wrote: Disheartening. Personally I've been wondering how long before people start seriously talking about taking "older" cars off the road. I want new highways, but less nannying, is that too much to ask?!

I fear this too....

The law wouldn't say you couldn't own an old car, you just can't get plates for it. Feel free to trailer it to a show or race track.

An un-smiley is really the only way to convey my thoughts about this.

Good lord, you guys sure read a lot into a single line.

Recall, the biggest argument about unintended acceleration is that the driver hit the gas when they intended to hit the brake. The way I read this, the intention is that the placement of the pedals reduces this risk.

Not sure how that translates into removing old cars from the road.

And I also know that even with the recent change in ETC code where the throttle closes when your foot is on the brake pedal (regardless), most will STILL allow you to heel and toe so that you can match revs.

People have been talking about removing cars from the roads for decades- for various reasons. Yet they still have not. The best effort has been a cash for clunkers that didn't to that much to the use car market.

Lighten up.

I am ambiliviant about the pedal placement.. but I think that something needs to be done on pushbutton starts. Especially where you have to hold the button several seconds to shut the engine down.. not sure about you.. but more than once in my driving career, being able to quickly shut down an engine has been a good thing

I can fix pedal spacing and I'm the world's 133rd worst fabricator. What is the big deal?

I really doubt that old cars will be pulled off the road. There are too many people that love them.

Doesn't Germany and Japan already have a laws that take cars off the road at a certain age?

RossD wrote: Doesn't Germany and Japan already have a laws that take cars off the road at a certain age?

No. There are just a lot of inspections that make it harder to keep older cars on the road (at least in Japan).

alfadriver wrote: And I also know that even with the recent change in ETC code where the throttle closes when your foot is on the brake pedal (regardless), most will STILL allow you to heel and toe so that you can match revs.

Every drive by wire VWAG product is like this. Two seconds is all you get, then the throttle snaps shut.

RossD wrote: Doesn't Germany and Japan already have a laws that take cars off the road at a certain age? No. There are just a lot of inspections that make it harder to keep older cars on the road (at least in Japan).

Yes.. Japan has the "shaken

They need to leave the bloody roads alone. If I encounter yet another poorly marked impromptu road project that forces me to make a detour and adds painful minutes to my travels, I'll scream. Half the time it looks as if they're digging up old curbing and replacing it with new curbing. I fail to see how this is important. It's a waste of taxpayer dollars in the name of economic stimulus. Not that there's anything surprising about that.

Ugh, more fixing of effects and not causes. Fix the people operating cars, not the cars themselves.

wasn't it the insurance institute of american that claimed that driver training has no effect on preventing accidents?

I have the fix for this whole problem. It is called a throttle cable.

Giant Purple Snorklewacker wrote: I have the fix for this whole problem. It is called a throttle cable.

you mean that really simple device that worked perfectly for over 100 years?

Giant Purple Snorklewacker wrote: I have the fix for this whole problem. It is called a throttle cable.

Not sure how a cable will prevent a driver from hitting the gas when they intend to hit the brake.

alfadriver wrote:

Giant Purple Snorklewacker wrote: I have the fix for this whole problem. It is called a throttle cable.

Not sure how a cable will prevent a driver from hitting the gas when they intend to hit the brake.

Unintended acceleration was a software issue for Toyota not a pedal placement problem.

mad_machine wrote:

Giant Purple Snorklewacker wrote: I have the fix for this whole problem. It is called a throttle cable.

you mean that really simple device that worked perfectly for over 100 years?

Ignoring that this is completely irrelevant to the above discussion on pedal placement, you must be kidding about throttle cables working "perfectly"...I bet a whole bunch of us have had sticking cables, cables that stretched and needed adjusted, broken cables, etc. stories to disprove this "perfectly" theory pretty quick. Rather than go on about how imperfect they are, I'll just assume you were kidding.

Bryce

alfadriver wrote: Good lord, you guys sure read a lot into a single line. Recall, the biggest argument about unintended acceleration is that the driver hit the gas when they intended to hit the brake. The way I read this, the intention is that the placement of the pedals reduces this risk. Not sure how that translates into removing old cars from the road. And I also know that even with the recent change in ETC code where the throttle closes when your foot is on the brake pedal (regardless), most will STILL allow you to heel and toe so that you can match revs. People have been talking about removing cars from the roads for decades- for various reasons. Yet they still have not. The best effort has been a cash for clunkers that didn't to that much to the use car market. Lighten up.

Pretty much my thoughts.
Although with a size 13 shoe, I wouldn't mind a little more space between the pedals sometimes. Due to the large amount of metal hardware in my feet fusing joints, heel-toeing has been impossible for me for years anyway.

Nashco wrote: Ignoring that this is completely irrelevant to the above discussion on pedal placement, you must be kidding about throttle cables working "perfectly"...I bet a whole bunch of us have had sticking cables, cables that stretched and needed adjusted, broken cables, etc. stories to disprove this "perfectly" theory pretty quick. Rather than go on about how imperfect they are, I'll just assume you were kidding. Bryce

More than once. In fact, 3 times in 3 different cars. No system is foolproof, but I'll betcha there's more failsafe things built into an average new car with drive-by-wire than the old spring-return throttle cable.

But yeah, you guys are reading WAY too much into this.

Giant Purple Snorklewacker wrote: Unintended acceleration was a software issue for Toyota not a pedal placement problem.

In the end the investigation found it to be driver error in all but the first case of the guy in the Lexus. The Lexus' unintended acceleration was because of floormats not made for the car being used in the car. Well that and a driver that didn't know how to put a car in neutral.