Regional and Urban Design Committee

 View Only

Community HTML

pexels-photo-443383.jpeg

Quick Links

Who we are

The Regional and Urban Design Committee (RUDC) aims to improve the quality of the regional and urban environment by promoting excellence in design, planning, and public policy in the built environment. This will be achieved through its member and public education, in concert with allied community and professional groups. Join us!

2024 Symposium

The 2024 symposium will be held in Indianapolis, IN in November. Stay tuned for dates and location. Registration will open in July.

2023 RUDC Symposium

The RUDC Symposium, held in Washington, DC October 19-20, covered emerging trends, theories, and technologies that are shaping the future of regional and urban design. Watch the engaging highlight and speaker videos >.

  • 1.  Are autonomous vehicles the death of cities?

    Posted 09-02-2015 04:07 PM
    This message has been cross posted to the following Discussion Forums: Committee on the Environment and Regional and Urban Design Committee .
    -------------------------------------------

    The Autonomous Vehicle - Savior or Killer of Cities? 

    Few doubt that the autonomous vehicle (AV) will come and that the self driving car will be a certain reality. The only question is when. Meanwhile there are many questions about what those vehicles will mean for cities. I was reminded of this when the $2.9 billion Baltimore Red Line rail transit project was stopped in the last minute before construction and someone commented that the AV would have arrived before the Red Line would have been completed in 2021 anyway and would have made it obsolete before it was operational.  Would AVs substitute for transit? Kill cities or enhance them? How can we know?
    AV operations are inherently different from human-driven vehicles. They may be programmed to not break traffic laws. They do not drink and drive. Their reaction times are quicker and they can be optimized to smooth traffic flows, improve fuel economy, and reduce emissions. They can deliver freight and unlicensed travelers to their destinations. Daniel J. Fagnant, Kara Kockelman, The University of Texas at Austin 2013


    Advertisement from 1957 for "America's Independent Electric Light and Power Companies" (art by H. Miller).  Text with original: "ELECTRICITY MAY BETHE DRIVER. One day your car may speed along an electric super-highway,  its speed andsteering automatically controlled by electronic  devices embedded in the road. Highways will be made safe-by electricity! 

    The experimental Google AV   
    Will these attributes help to foster the renaissance of American cities that we observed in recent years .....
    Read full article

    -------------------------------------------
    Klaus Philipsen FAIA
    Archplan Inc. Philipsen Architects
    Baltimore MD
    -------------------------------------------


  • 2.  RE: Are autonomous vehicles the death of cities?

    Posted 08-21-2015 05:26 PM
    Klaus, you should write a monthly article on this subject as the data torques up quicker than an EV. It seems that the complications and the possibilities for the "autonomous car" are endless, It will require another interesting definition of the rules of autonomy, involving speed limits, HOV's, ride sharing demands, privacy and community issues, not to mention the unintended consequences. Ultimately waiting for a somewhat more convenient bus to arrive, even if only has 4 seats, isn't what I want. But it may be an overall significant benefit to all, on safer and less congested traffic routes.      

    My car and I are already autonomous, in that we are are "independent and self governed" with me at the wheel, so I will not be seeking that dealership's brand of autonomy. Admittedly, I do not always observe the  speed limit, though usually, the technical goal of driverless technocrats is get people like me out of controlling the streets anymore. Driverless car technology requires the application of rules that change the nature of the autonomous automobile completely. It will never succeed in putting me behind bars for speeding, so they will just remove the accessible accelerator from the bottom of my foot. No argument, except what about my AH MK3000 on back country roads?  

    That technology would end the love affair we've had with our sports cars, SUV's, you name it, since the days of the horse and the horse buggy. I'm not saying it's the intention of the driverless technocrats to do that, but I guess it would leave more time to make out in the back seat, if you wanted to.   

    Allen E Neyman
    Rockville, MD
    -------------------------------------------




  • 3.  RE: Are autonomous vehicles the death of cities?

    Posted 08-24-2015 07:54 PM
    Allen-
    You are right on in saying that "Driverless car technology requires the application of rules that change the nature of the autonomous automobile completely." I'd add that this is not just about driverless car technology. All kinds of technology demand that people change in order to fit its needs. Technologists can't help but think this way- they're in the business of developing technology. I don't want to sound like a Luddite, but if we're going to reap the benefits of technology, I think we should keep our eyes open.
    Cheers,


    -------------------------------------------
    David Scheer AIA
    Owner
    David Ross Scheer Architect, LLC
    Salt Lake City UT
    -------------------------------------------




  • 4.  RE: Are autonomous vehicles the death of cities?

    Posted 08-25-2015 03:33 AM
    Hello, fellow drivers ---

    For the last few years, I've watched these stories about "self-driving cars" (scary, but I remember that '50s image from "My Weekly Reader" or some such, in 5th grade, when it was new).  Note, not all folks will be the happy family playing Scrabble.

    Impact on cities?
    That I don't get, PER SE.  It's the same trip, person/people in a private car, going from Point J to Point Z, whether the car is human-directed or directed by some system, whether on-board or centralized.  I've always imagined system-driving to be concentrated on major roads, with the human doing the driving in the fussy, tighter, neighborhood areas.  
    So, what's the impact on cities?  It could well be the huge, fabulously-costly "Receiving Lots".

    Receiving Lots!
    Given the above assumption, we'd need serious "Receiving Lots", for when the car is taken off "automatic".  This is an issue which I have NOT seen addressed.  We know how irresponsible people are now, with NO automatic driving.  Imagine the situation with "certain types" after 3-1/2 hours on automatic; the deep sleeping, sex, drugs/drinking, even fighting, and worse.  They'll be far from ready, some criminally so, to resume control of the car.
    Receiving Lots:
    1.    Located at all termination points of "automatic roads".
    2.    Capacity: 2 or 3 hours' peak-exiting cars (and trucks?).
    3.    Parking spaces drive-in, drive-out, like big-rig truckers' spaces now.
    4.    Spaces 12-to-15-ft. wide, for personnel access as needed.
    5.    Some sort of driver-capacity verification system, for resuming control.
    6.    Police substation.
    7.    Medical substation w/ clinic, ambulance/s.
    8.    Car-removal/towing system, + holding and/or shuttle for car occupants.

    Other than that, the idea is a cinch!

    ALL-Automatic System?
    To not have Receiving lots, we'd need a totally-automatic system, for door-to-door travel.  This would need to be perfectly maintained.  And the Tooth Fairy now gives, on average, $3.40 per tooth.

    Thanks ---
    Bill Devlin





    -------------------------------------------
    William Devlin AIA
    William J. Devlin, AIA, Inc.
    Springfield MA
    -------------------------------------------




  • 5.  RE: Are autonomous vehicles the death of cities?

    Posted 08-31-2015 09:47 AM
    BIll
    The confusion about driverless technology (DT) has only begun. It is a solution without a problem per se...when you imagine all the things that the DT  would offer, it sounds interesting enough and is inspiring. A close relative of DT is robotics technology, also first introduced as a solution without a problem. But its ultimate usefulness in manufacturing and in clinical settings is extraordinary.

    But "robots" are not vicariously roaming the earth, on a mission, as imagined in first inception. As I look into my crystal ball, we will not see driverless cars roaming the streets as proposed by the DT creators. But we can look forward to benefits where DT is applied, as the robotics technology has proven, in a more restricted and limited arena.  
    Allen       

    -------------------------------------------
    Allen E Neyman
    Rockville, MD
    -------------------------------------------




  • 6.  RE: Are autonomous vehicles the death of cities?

    Posted 09-02-2015 04:07 PM
    Bill Devlin,

    Regarding your questions about what the impacts could possibly be,

    I have tried to describe them in my article. I can only assume you didn't read it. It makes a huge difference whether you have AVs or normal driver driven cars, for road capacity, for parking and possibly for the whole culture of car ownership, deployment and use. Those are the really interesting questions. I don't have the answers, but I think I made a plausible case that the AV provides a qualitative shift with wide implications. 

    -------------------------------------------
    Klaus Philipsen FAIA
    Archplan Inc. Philipsen Architects
    Baltimore MD
    -------------------------------------------




  • 7.  RE: Are autonomous vehicles the death of cities?

    Posted 09-03-2015 08:06 PM

    Google-mpg?

    I have just exited the bathroom where I discovered in the lower stratum of basket reading material an issue of AARP magazine. I read an article bolstering an idea for driverless transportation, albeit fostered by Google.  A good read in that venue.

    Considering the overall transportation needs of the developing world, as well as the current condition of our existing “clogged” urban transit web, I find this ‘new’ idea to be only one more ripple in the pre-tsunami of real transportation problem solving, which is not Google's lesser-than-driver car.  This is just one more surface based transportation scheme in the volley of lawn-dart attempts at proving something of the nature of 'the earth is flat.' The article was questionable in its purported application at the outset for reasons too numerous to list. Thus, I searched as I read, for the structure of Googles concept - just how Google is turning the dials to even tally a simple project scope.  When I read about Google's use of a browser to find anything online and in direct comparison to this seemingly backwards concept, I almost quit reading.

    I understand that reporters don’t often get the story straight or that the real recipe may not want to be revealed, but please, let’s get this right. Eventually the cookie has to be served. On that note, why isn’t google in the kitchen making cookies, with so much access to information/expertise on everything? The statistical variant is so overwhelmingly against a successful ground-based beanie-copter motion-thinking   s  l  o  w   transportation scheme it beckons one to ask the question….. is this just a google write-off or is this a google pry to frustrate architects enough that we will step up and solve the problem ourselves? 

    My gut thinks the latter.



    ------------------------------
    Kenneth E. Martin, AIA
    Principal Proprietor
    KeMA
    Thornton CO
    ------------------------------