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Love it. Except the whole driverless cars fantasy dream though which I would doubt they would help in any fashion. Unfortunately if we care about our ecosystem

Love it. Except the whole driverless cars fantasy dream though which I would doubt they would help in any fashion. Unfortunately if we care about our ecosystems, communities divided by roads, and the constant noise and air pollution I think we only have harder solutions to negotiate: Speed limits, suburbs, and supporting useful public transit and bicycle infrastructure (to reduce road speed and the need to build road capacity linearly with rising incomes as the world develops)

r2b2 3y ago
Autonomous electric cars make tunnels easier, which have smaller negative impact on the environment.
akolbe 3y ago
One way driverless cars might help is that they reduce the amount of land that has to be given over to carparks, especially in the US. Where towns in Europe would build a multi-story carpark to serve a shopping mall, municipalities in North America may simply cover acres upon acres of land around a mall with asphalt (take the Edmonton Mall in Alberta, Canada, or the Fairlane Town Center in Dearborn, MI), in the process creating an almost lifeless zone. You wouldn't need that much space for parked cars if everyone arrived in a driverless Uber. (Apparently, US parking lots cover an area of around 25,000 square miles, about twice the size of Switzerland:) https://www.theguardian.com/cities/2016/sep/27/cities-eliminating-car-parks-parking https://www.theguardian.com/cities/2016/sep/27/cities-elimin...
- AlecSchueler 3y ago
  > Where towns in Europe would build a multi-story carpark to serve a shopping mall, municipalities in North America may simply cover acres upon acres of land Couldn't you solve this issue without self driving cars by just building multi-story carparks like Europe? Or using the same space to build shopping streets with multiple stores and some onstreet parking? That way it's a bit more social and scenic as well.
  - kiba 3y ago
    Multistory parking lots are more expensive, and ultimately unnecessary if you don't need parking in the first place. First, determine how much you can eliminate car related infrastructure and implement infrastructure that are more efficient and are actually necessary. Dollars that don't have to be spent on expensive and unnecessary infrastructure can be spent on making spaces more livable or increasing amenities.
    - AlecSchueler 3y ago
      I definitely agree, I live in the Netherlands and love the infrastructure philosophy here. I just thought that in America the car dependecy was partly cultural and partly due to zoning laws which push the broader philisophical shifts beyond the control of individual design companies and contractors. The solutions I put forward above were meant to be read within that context.
- wpm 3y ago
  The US could also generally stop mandating such a ridiculous amount of parking. Parking minimums are scarcely different than soothsaying, “oh great book of zoning rules, tell us how much parking this bowling alley needs”. And the book is just made up, based on everyone else’s book which was ultimately based on a guess from 60 years ago. There is a small development on previously industrial land near me with a Best Buy and a Kohls, facing each other with some parking in the middle. Half surface lot, half there story parking garage. On a busy day, maybe 60% of the surface lot will be full. The garage is useless, but required for X amount of retail square footage. A monumental waste of money and resources. We don’t need self driving cars, we need to pull our heads out of our asses and change the absurd, baseless rules we build our environment around.
  - 8n4vidtmkvmk 3y ago
    Seems like it'd be so easy to solve with all the data we have now. Just pay some youngsters to count cars and empty stalls for awhile and record what type of businesses are nearby and then give it to an analyst.
- kiba 3y ago
  One way driverless cars might help is that they reduce the amount of land that has to be given over to carparks, especially in the US. Now, you have a different problem: more cars on the roads. And everyone tend to do the same thing at the same time. Multistory parking and excessive parking lots are the really largely the result of poor urban planning, not technology.
  - 8n4vidtmkvmk 3y ago
    Autonomous buses. Or mini buses which apparently exist in LA already. Similar to Uber but the only option is to share with other riders. You won't get there quite as quick but it'll still be convenient and we won't need as many.

r2b2 3y ago

Autonomous electric cars make tunnels easier, which have smaller negative impact on the environment.

akolbe 3y ago

One way driverless cars might help is that they reduce the amount of land that has to be given over to carparks, especially in the US. Where towns in Europe would build a multi-story carpark to serve a shopping mall, municipalities in North America may simply cover acres upon acres of land around a mall with asphalt (take the Edmonton Mall in Alberta, Canada, or the Fairlane Town Center in Dearborn, MI), in the process creating an almost lifeless zone. You wouldn't need that much space for parked cars if everyone arrived in a driverless Uber. (Apparently, US parking lots cover an area of around 25,000 square miles, about twice the size of Switzerland:) https://www.theguardian.com/cities/2016/sep/27/cities-eliminating-car-parks-parking https://www.theguardian.com/cities/2016/sep/27/cities-elimin...

AlecSchueler 3y ago
> Where towns in Europe would build a multi-story carpark to serve a shopping mall, municipalities in North America may simply cover acres upon acres of land Couldn't you solve this issue without self driving cars by just building multi-story carparks like Europe? Or using the same space to build shopping streets with multiple stores and some onstreet parking? That way it's a bit more social and scenic as well.
- kiba 3y ago
  Multistory parking lots are more expensive, and ultimately unnecessary if you don't need parking in the first place. First, determine how much you can eliminate car related infrastructure and implement infrastructure that are more efficient and are actually necessary. Dollars that don't have to be spent on expensive and unnecessary infrastructure can be spent on making spaces more livable or increasing amenities.
  - AlecSchueler 3y ago
    I definitely agree, I live in the Netherlands and love the infrastructure philosophy here. I just thought that in America the car dependecy was partly cultural and partly due to zoning laws which push the broader philisophical shifts beyond the control of individual design companies and contractors. The solutions I put forward above were meant to be read within that context.
wpm 3y ago
The US could also generally stop mandating such a ridiculous amount of parking. Parking minimums are scarcely different than soothsaying, “oh great book of zoning rules, tell us how much parking this bowling alley needs”. And the book is just made up, based on everyone else’s book which was ultimately based on a guess from 60 years ago. There is a small development on previously industrial land near me with a Best Buy and a Kohls, facing each other with some parking in the middle. Half surface lot, half there story parking garage. On a busy day, maybe 60% of the surface lot will be full. The garage is useless, but required for X amount of retail square footage. A monumental waste of money and resources. We don’t need self driving cars, we need to pull our heads out of our asses and change the absurd, baseless rules we build our environment around.
- 8n4vidtmkvmk 3y ago
  Seems like it'd be so easy to solve with all the data we have now. Just pay some youngsters to count cars and empty stalls for awhile and record what type of businesses are nearby and then give it to an analyst.
kiba 3y ago
One way driverless cars might help is that they reduce the amount of land that has to be given over to carparks, especially in the US. Now, you have a different problem: more cars on the roads. And everyone tend to do the same thing at the same time. Multistory parking and excessive parking lots are the really largely the result of poor urban planning, not technology.
- 8n4vidtmkvmk 3y ago
  Autonomous buses. Or mini buses which apparently exist in LA already. Similar to Uber but the only option is to share with other riders. You won't get there quite as quick but it'll still be convenient and we won't need as many.