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The impending dawn of the autonomous car era is the reason why I am not marching on Washington for rail investment. This is really one time where cynical cheap
by pnut 11y ago
The impending dawn of the autonomous car era is the reason why I am not marching on Washington for rail investment.
This is really one time where cynical cheapskate politics may hasten rapid, positive societal change.
- ghaff 11y agoOr, alternatively, where hesitating to make enormous infrastructure investments for questionable return ended up to be the sensible approach after all.
- massysett 11y agoHow does an autonomous car reduce the need for infrastructure investment? A bunch of commuters in self-driving cars will clog the road just as much. Less need for parking, maybe; less need for roads, no. Maybe you could squeeze a bit more capacity out of freeways by running cars at high speed at short following distances. But a lot of congestion occurs at intersections and self-driving does little to solve that.
- Bud 11y agoNot "maybe" less need for parking. Definitely, certainly less need for parking. And remember that a lot of "road" surface is actually reserved for parking and not actually available to drive on. Same thing for having to have massive parking lots EVERYWHERE that people with cars might want to go; that can potentially go away completely. And if you need much much less parking, guess what you also need less of? Parking meters. And parking tickets. Imagine a society without that pernicious bullshit everywhere.