Driverless cars are changing everything about urban mobility.
Uber has raised billions of dollars to work with. The former head of world
transit recently observed that cities being "invaded" by new mobility entrepreneurs.
Self-driving cars change the paradigms of personal, community,
service and corporate operations. Delivery of restaurant and shopping items is
possible with robo-carts: experiments are underway in Santa Monica. Tomorrow’s
smart taxi and shuttle services will operate in new ways that should lower the cost of taking a cab. Ride-sharing flourishes, Who know what lifestyles will be in 2020, let alone 2030
and beyond?
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| Podcars extend the reach of metro stations. |
Even with a temporary reprieve from high gasoline prices, we
see over the horizon a world where fuel-burning vehicles are passé -- like dial telephones wired to the wall.
People young and old today are getting less ego satisfaction and more
frustration out of the burden of owning a personal vehicle. Today, it is a
necessity to be a full participant in US life. But the costs! The hassles! The
dangers! Owning a car hardly seems worth it for more and
more people.
No wonder many are kissing off the drudgery, renting when needed, and seeking the advantages of living in neighborhoods where walking and
biking are safe and easy. There taxi and bus services are more
available, and distances to travel are shorter. And maybe in the future a
pod-station will anchor a local community hub.
Ripple Effects in the Urban System
If a large shift in mobility patterns were to happen, the places we
want to get to (for work, shopping, socializing, sports, worship, and back) will
need fewer parking spaces. Landscaped trails and gardens can replace parking lots. New housing, perhaps with no parking requirements, will appeal to
those without cars. With modest funds, community volunteers and creativity, your part of town can create landscaped pedestrian networks and tame traffic.
Nodes of density will become more commercially viable clustered around pod-stations. Car-free citizens will walk and bike more. They
will take transit more. Most adults uninterested in kids don’t want to live in
suburbs. Most seniors don’t want the isolation of remote retirement
communities. We all want to be close to other people, stores and happening
places.
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| Systems of mobility can work together, |
Podcars Mean Car-Free Living
Podcars are available to expand our mobility options,
making young and old go car-less. This may seem impossible in today’s auto-addicted
America. Well, a comparable paradigm shift happened about a century ago when the
rich and middle classes got rid of the carriages and horses. Urban America
sprawled out into suburbs and exurbs and mega-regional hubs, drunk in the 1960s
and 1970s on cheap gas and the mobility of cars. Now it’s not so cheap. The
friction of space is still there.
Automating cars won’t immediately reduce traffic. It does,
however, do something much more important: automated
mobility lessens the need to spend, on average, $10,000 a year to own and operate
a personal car.
