A Smart City. Image credit: Author
IMPACT ON URBAN AREAS With cars no longer dominating our urban landscapes, silent and safe streets will be reclaimed as true public spaces with the added space used to provide with green and blue infrastructure, play space, orchards, cycle ways, etc. It will be much safer to cycle and to walk and roads will become de-cluttered, calmer and healthier environments, making active travel much more appealing, especially for short distances. The potential for driver-less cars to change our life, our cities and our environment is significant especially at
high levels of market penetration. While there is little doubt that this technology could significantly increase network capacity there is also a large risk that if left unmanaged it could actually make congestion a lot worse – increasing capacity has shown in many cases to be an ineffective means of reducing congestion. Furthermore, in addition to making travelling very attractive as we’ve already discussed above, driverless vehicles will open up the possibility of travelling to people who wouldn’t normally be able to operate a vehicle. Add in ownership models and this situation it could become unmanageable.
June 2016 | CITY OBSERVER
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