Second Life Transport Authority
NOTE: THIS ARTICLE IS UNDER DEVELOPMENT. ESTIMATED FINISH DATE: MAY 10TH 2014
Under this name are the vehicles released in traffic by AnnMarie Oleander (also known as AnnMarie Otoole). The name comes from the initiales written on some of the vehicle bases. Second Life Transport Authority (or SLTA) is the largest transport company by the number of vehicles and the second largest company by land coverage, after the Yava Script Pods. It is a well organised company, with its own bases and a multitude of vehicles.
Bases
The vast majority of bases (if not all) look like gas stations, only that you don't find gas. Some stations have the sign SLTA or have modified names after oil compaies (like Hell after Shell). Land is owned by the group Convicts. There, a passenger will most often find a vehicle waiting for passengers. Many other vehicles can be rezzed on command. Still, position of all bases is not known. It is supposed that on small continents like Sharp Continent vehicles are rezzed manually. The following is a list of SLTA bases:
- Banyan sim
- Timescape sim
- Cavedweller sim
- Roclaren sim
- Muskeg sim
- Plusia sim
- Straminsky sim
- Borgatti sim
- Effingham sim
- Horseshoe sim
- Westport sim
- St Maur sim
- Gangkhar sim
Vehicles
There is a huge list of vehicles available at the SLTA bases and on the roads. The list includes everything, from classic and old cars to trunks, garbage cars and even micro-cars created for pocket avatars. Majority of them are freebie vehicles. Their presence is noted also by the engine sound they create. It is not a good idea to stay in front of a SLTA vehicle, majority of them are not phantom and might push you away.
Movement
SLTA vehicles are known as drunk cars. They are roaming vehicles and if you follow them, they will take you nowhere. They keep on moving, turning left or right and sometimes even turning back. Even on a straight road, they don't move in a straight line, they keep turning left or right just like the driveris being drunk. This strange behavior helps vehicles to find an alternative way when the road turns left or right or at an intersection.
There have been noted cases when SLTA vehicles leave the road and enter private parcels or when they fly above the road after reaching the top of a hill. Their behavior is very interesting. If they reach a dead end, they will turn back and try to rotate, to find a way out. Thanks to this behavior, they manage to escape majority of unwanted situations.
Also, SLTA vehicles know to follow the Guide when they reach a railway in Heterocera.
Passenger Rights
Some vehicles allow a few commands: Touch to start, touch to stop, touch the engine hood for reverse. At some point, the vehicle plus a movement script are offered for sale. Also, passengers have a chance to purchase one free car plus a movement script for 100 L$.
Vehicle removal
There is a function that removes used vehicles from the roads. Other vehicles are auto-returned when they got stocked.
Land coverage
SLTA vehicles are found on all roads of major continents, but their density varies up to high limits. They are most often found close to the bases. In some parts of the grid, like the inner atoll of Heterocera, they are extremely rare. An estimation made by Second Life Geography team is that vehicle frequence vary from one at every 10 minutes to one at a day.
Land coverage depends on continent. SLTA vehicles can often be found on roads of Sansara, on Satori, Jeogeot or Corsica ,a bit mroe rare in Heterocera and more rare in Gaeta 5 or Sharp Continent. They are not seen on unconnected roads (like some roads of Nautilus, fragments of roads in Gaeta 5 or Gaeta 1, Bay City or the mountain road in Heterocera. Inside Zindra, their presence has not been observed. Roads of Zindra don't allow objects entry in many places and as a direct result no transport company can operate there properly.
Importance
A fisrt estimation was that about 60 to 70% of all roaming vehicles belong to SLTA. However, the real situation is more complex. Many other people release in traffic automated vehicles, some of them created by AnnMarie. Depending on what route and on what moment the measurement is done, values can oscilate from 0 to 100%. Still, majority of roaming vehicles are owned by SLTA.
These vehicles are not made for tours, they don't follow a specific route. They take passengers into the unknown because you never know for sure where they will go. There have been seen passengers on the SLTA cars, usually not for long distances. Residents sometimes thake a moving vehicle to reach faster their destinations. The main importance of these vehicles is decorative. It makes a road much more realistic when vehicles are seen on it and they move like a vehicle should do.
As they provide free transportation, there have been noticed situations when a SLTA car has 3 or more passengers. The Yava Script Pods are too small for more then two people. The random movement of these vehicles makes the trip really interesting, since there is no way to clearly know where the car will go. There are cases when a vehicle is followed by its passengers for hours. The fact that speed is much slower, makes a sim crash more unlikely.
The other importance of SLTA vehicles is that their presence encouraged also other people to make automated vehicles.
Comments
On the sites, forums and groups, there are many discussions about SLTA vehicles. Some people want them to be removed from the roads, while some people like them to exist on roads.