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
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Original Message:
Sent: 08-21-2015 17:25
From: Allen E Neyman
Subject: Are autonomous vehicles the death of cities?
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
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Original Message:
Sent: 08-19-2015 20:20
From: Nikolaus Philipsen
Subject: Are autonomous vehicles the death of cities?
This message has been cross posted to the following Discussion Forums: Committee on the Environment and Regional and Urban Design Committee .
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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!
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The experimental Google AV |
Will these attributes help to foster the renaissance of American cities that we observed in recent years .....
Read full article
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Klaus Philipsen FAIA
Archplan Inc. Philipsen Architects
Baltimore MD
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