The claim that Zhejiang Province will build China's first super highway has recently been officially confirmed. The reporter learned that the super highway to be built is the Hangzhou-Ningbo double-track expressway—the Hangzhou-Shaoxing-Ningbo Expressway, which has been approved in sections. This highway will possess four major elements: intelligence, speed, greenness, and safety.

　　On this super highway, a big-data-driven smart cloud control platform will be constructed. Through intelligent systems and vehicle management, the operating speed of the highway will be effectively increased, raising the speed by 20% to 30% on the basis of the current average speed of 90 km/h; a human-vehicle-road collaborative system will be built, and in the long term, it will fully support autonomous driving, and combined with wireless charging technology, achieve charging while driving...

　　Speed to Increase by 20%-30%, Supporting Autonomous Driving

　　Ren Zhong, deputy director of the Zhejiang Provincial Department of Transportation, stated that the core concept of intelligence is to build a comprehensive perception system for human-vehicle-road collaboration and to construct a comprehensive road network operation monitoring and early warning system.

　　"At present, the actual average operating speed of similar expressways in Zhejiang is about 90 km/h, far below the 120 km/h speed limit. Through intelligent systems and vehicle management, the driving speed of the super highway will be greatly increased. The near-term goal is to increase the average speed by 20-30%, approaching the design speed. In addition, drawing on the corresponding technical standards of German highways with no speed limit and Italy's maximum speed limit of 150 km/h, civil engineering technical indicators are reserved for the Hangzhou-Shaoxing-Ningbo Expressway to exceed the design speed of 120 km/h in the long term," said Ren Zhong.

　　The future development direction of automobiles is electrification, and the super highway naturally takes this into account in its design. Ren Zhong introduced that the near-term goal is to provide charging services for electric vehicles through solar power generation, photovoltaic power generation on the road surface, and supplementing with plug-in charging piles. The long-term goal is to achieve mobile wireless charging, charging while driving.

　　On the basis of intelligence, the super highway will improve system safety, with the goal of minimizing accident hazards. In the near term, it will achieve all-weather safe and fast passage on the highway. In the long term, based on high-precision positioning, vehicle-road collaboration, unmanned driving and other integrated access systems, it will realize the vision of zero deaths.

　　Ren Zhong stated that while innovating, Zhejiang also considers the economic applicability of new technologies and new materials, making the construction of the super highway demonstrative and replicable.

　　According to the plan, the super highway will be completed before the 2022 Hangzhou Asian Games.

　　The Hangzhou-Shaoxing-Ningbo Expressway is the double-track of the Hangzhou-Ningbo Expressway. It starts from the Xiasha hub of the Hangzhou Ring Expressway and ends at the Chaiqiao hub of the Ningbo Chuanshan Port Expressway. The route scheme is about 161 kilometers long, planned as a two-way six-lane road, with a design speed of 120 km/h, and is expected to open to traffic in 2021. At present, the only expressway between Ningbo and Hangzhou, the Hangzhou-Ningbo Expressway, opened in 1996. It is the first expressway in Zhejiang and one of the busiest expressways in Zhejiang. It is estimated that by 2030, the average daily traffic volume will reach 200,000 vehicles, approaching saturation.

　　Why do highways have maximum speed limits?

　　We know that some highway sections in Germany have no speed limit, while most countries around the world have maximum speed limits, such as Italy at 150 km/h, France at 130 km/h, and China at 120 km/h. Why is this?

　　——Human physiological factors

　　The driver's vision, field of view, and reaction time are the three most important factors affecting traffic safety. When a driver observes objects ahead, it is dynamic. Human visual function is greatly affected by speed. As speed increases, vision declines (dynamic vision), and the field of view narrows (tunnel vision).

　　According to scientific tests, at a speed of 72 km/h, normal vision of 1.2 drops to 0.7; at a speed of 100 km/h, the field of view is only 45 degrees. The normal reaction time of a driver (discovering an object—making a judgment—taking action) is generally about 2.5 seconds. Therefore, for a vehicle traveling at 120 km/h, the reaction distance is: 120x1000x2.5/60=83 (m). If factors such as vehicle braking and inertia gliding are added, the effective reaction distance actually exceeds 100 meters.

　　Suppose there is an obstacle 100 m ahead. At 120 km/h, the speed is 33 m/s. You have 3 seconds to react. At 160 km/h, the speed is 44 m/s. You only have 2.2 seconds to react. For most people, this is not enough. Therefore, most people cannot react correctly in time when encountering emergencies at 160 km/h.

　　——Vehicle factors

　　Although the performance of family cars is getting better and better, a speed of 120 km/h is no problem for ordinary family cars, let alone luxury cars. However, don't forget that not only cars but also vans and trucks run on highways. Those heavily loaded trucks may even travel at less than 60 km/h on uphill sections.

　　Under such conditions, if the speed limit is too high, the speed difference between various vehicles will be too large, further increasing the probability of accidents.

　　——Driver quality

　　The level and quality of drivers are definitely one of the important reasons for speed limits. Some highways in Germany have no speed limit, but the probability of traffic accidents is very low, which is greatly related to the high driving quality of drivers.

　　——Energy saving and environmental protection considerations

　　As speed increases, wind resistance increases exponentially. The explosive growth of wind resistance requires greater power from the vehicle, which significantly increases vehicle energy consumption. The intuitive manifestation is a significant increase in fuel consumption per 100 kilometers. Generally speaking, 100-120 km/h is the best combination of vehicle performance, speed, safety, and other factors, saving fuel, protecting the environment, and being safe and fast.