City Planning Autonomous from AVs

As Eric Jaffe warns us in his CityLab editorial, city planners must take great heed not to make regretful, lasting changes to our cities’ built environment based simply on the perceived demands of our new autonomous wheeled overlords.

This is especially true given that we don’t yet know their demands, as city dwellers/consumers will set those in a way governments could not hope to predict.

For example, will the mainstream electrification of vehicle engines accompany to reduce overall pollution? If not, it may actually jump with consumers’ use of autos in urban areas skyrocketing as they would no longer be responsible for parking, maintenance fees. Combined with already-extreme rental prices in city proper, developers may see incentive to increase sprawl again, as driving commutes would become passive and less unattractive to those living in the further reaches.

Should De Blasio forsake affordable housing when beneficiaries can just pay a fraction of the cost to live in and commute from the Poconos? And what of the temptation of our politicians to further abandon mass transit initiatives in favor of road maintenance? Even with complete car automation, the entire Manhattan street grid cannot hope to absorb the weekday morning ridership of the IRT (1/2/3/4/5/6/7) lines.

Undoubtedly there will be positive aspects such as complete adherence to street safety rules, no need for motorists’ insurance (most of us should be happy about that one) and tremendous space for street parking rededicated to more fruitful purposes. Planners should embrace that AVs will eventually come to their city, but be instrumental in guiding their role in serving said city and its inhabitants’ needs without inadvertently dismantling its core structure under the guise of increased convenience of mobility.

References:

(http://www.citylab.com/cityfixer/2015/12/why-arent-urban-planners-ready-for-driverless-cars/419346/)