Toronto is setting out to spend hundreds of millions on new transit lines: light rail and/or subway lines. We have had the light rail vs subway debate many times, but are they both wrong?
Are we building transit for the 20th century instead of the 21st?
Self driving vehicles seem certain to revolutionize transportation. They aren't just a little bit different than what we have today. They are a LOT different.
They will result in a totally different way of thinking about transportation just as these hugely expensive projects come fully online--twenty years from now.
Twenty years is a long time. Technology is moving fast.
Self driving cars will change the way we think about car ownership. It's going to become a leasing model for a lot of people, like a ZipCar that comes to you when and where you want it. Like Uber, but without a driver.
Drivers are the big operating cost in public transit, whether we are talking about buses or taxis, It's the cost of the driver that is usually the limiting factor in how many are on the road.
Or flip it around. Assuming ALL cars can self drive, why wouldn't you send YOUR car out to make some money while you aren't using it? YOUR car spends most of its existence unproductively parked. Wouldn't it be better if it could go drive around for Uber for a few hours earning some fares while you are at work?
Instead of paying for parking, you'd get paid.
So what are the implications of that:
1. No more street parking. Nobody will ever park. Their car will drop them off and drive away, maybe to pick up other people. Maybe to park somewhere else.
2. Ride sharing replaces GO train, subway, and buses. Why take any of those things when you can get door to door service? A self driving minivan can pick up and drop off a few people on a common route to work and do so cheaply.
Maybe we will build a hugely expensive subway system and no one will ever take it because it will be obsolete before it's even built.
Maybe instead we should begin investing in self driving infrastructure. Traffic controls that can talk to a computerized car, upgrades to the highways to make them easier for computer driven cars to navigate, off street parking designed for self driving cars to go stow themselves until needed--Wi-Fi enabled so they can receive your call to come pick you up.
By eliminating all street parking we gain a lot of capacity on the roads. Maybe we don't need trains.
Are we building transit for the 20th century instead of the 21st?
Self driving vehicles seem certain to revolutionize transportation. They aren't just a little bit different than what we have today. They are a LOT different.
They will result in a totally different way of thinking about transportation just as these hugely expensive projects come fully online--twenty years from now.
Twenty years is a long time. Technology is moving fast.
Self driving cars will change the way we think about car ownership. It's going to become a leasing model for a lot of people, like a ZipCar that comes to you when and where you want it. Like Uber, but without a driver.
Drivers are the big operating cost in public transit, whether we are talking about buses or taxis, It's the cost of the driver that is usually the limiting factor in how many are on the road.
Or flip it around. Assuming ALL cars can self drive, why wouldn't you send YOUR car out to make some money while you aren't using it? YOUR car spends most of its existence unproductively parked. Wouldn't it be better if it could go drive around for Uber for a few hours earning some fares while you are at work?
Instead of paying for parking, you'd get paid.
So what are the implications of that:
1. No more street parking. Nobody will ever park. Their car will drop them off and drive away, maybe to pick up other people. Maybe to park somewhere else.
2. Ride sharing replaces GO train, subway, and buses. Why take any of those things when you can get door to door service? A self driving minivan can pick up and drop off a few people on a common route to work and do so cheaply.
Maybe we will build a hugely expensive subway system and no one will ever take it because it will be obsolete before it's even built.
Maybe instead we should begin investing in self driving infrastructure. Traffic controls that can talk to a computerized car, upgrades to the highways to make them easier for computer driven cars to navigate, off street parking designed for self driving cars to go stow themselves until needed--Wi-Fi enabled so they can receive your call to come pick you up.
By eliminating all street parking we gain a lot of capacity on the roads. Maybe we don't need trains.
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