For a minute , essay to block the plug you try about ego - driving cable car and think about the single - occupant , human being - drive fomite like this : A very inefficient way to use expensive metropolis land . Not only do extra - wide route take up a lot of space , there ’s far too much property allocated to parking — about 20 pct of the land in many US business district are surface parking lots . Autonomous vehicles will require less than a third of the land that cars do now , which could then be used for anything but cars . Like more caparison .
This is why San Francisco — a metropolis that , geographically , has very little land — is not just planning on autonomous vehicles as a expatriation root . Done right field , ego - drive cars can also alleviate the urban center ’s low-priced housing crisis . “ It ’s a space issue , ” said Tim Papandreou , chief innovation officer for San Francisco ’s Municipal Transportation Agency ( SFMTA ) , who recently spearheaded thecity ’s large proposition . “ We have the data to establish we wo n’t involve the place on the streets any longer . But if we do both shared and electric automated vehicle , we ’re not just freeing up space in the street , we ’re exempt up space in the lots . ”
San Francisco ’s visual modality is one of the seven finalist for theSmart City Challenge , the US Department of transportation system - shop contest toturn one American metropolis into a transportation utopia . As one of the finalist , San Francisco received $ 100,000 to down its proposal of marriage , and could get up to $ 50 million more for implementation when the succeed Smart City is announce this summertime .
But what San Francisco ’s proposal also does is draw a very clear roadmap — and it is an factual road map — for how other cities can use this kind of engineering science to avoid their own catastrophic trapping crisis .
These before - and - after graphics from the presentation show a amazingly obvious correlation between transportation and affordability in a city with circumscribed space like San Francisco . mightily now , San Francisco ’s lowest - income occupant are being price out of the city due to a failure to add enough trapping stock . Many people terminate up living further away , where public transit is n’t as good , and spending way too much on private transportation , which finish up creating a contaminating , more grievous city .
Just moving 10 percent of San Francisco ’s occupier out of individual - tenancy cars and into partake vehicles , public transportation , or “ active musical mode ” like walk and biking would not only alleviate those mobility costs for families , but would also reduce emission and prevent death on the street . Instead of ramp up parking for all those automobile , the metropolis can build housing . People can afford to hold up closer to their problem again , and there will actually be station for them to live .
This is not a challenge that ’s unequaled to San Francisco , enunciate Papandreou . But San Francisco is unequaled in the sense that its growth has routinely beenfought by NIMBYswho do n’t desire the city to add density — mostly in the form of taller buildings . The secret of the plan , say Papandreou , is that it would n’t add much concentration to the city at all in the form of high-pitched - rises . It would really just be exchange surface parking lots and parking garage into all sorts of thing that make city more livable .
I ’ve collected afew courteous visualizationsthat show the future land - usance benefits from autonomous vehicle . But this timeline of how San Francisco design to get from here to there attractively illustrates the process for how that change might hap . The city can literally swap parking lots for parks .
What ’s most significant to note is that this is n’t just a “ self - driving gondola solution , ” but rather a movement towards few cars , with a full technical overhaul of all the vehicles in the metropolis . Because it ’s not just personal railcar that are film up so much space , but also city vehicles like street sweepers , drivel hand truck , and manner of speaking vans . “ Notice that I always say ‘ machine-controlled engineering , ’ ” articulate Papandreou . “ The future is not move to be occur in the cars of today . ” So San Francisco is look at how to apply this kind of thinking throughout all eccentric of mobility — and beyond wheeled vehicles , like automatise drones .
The conversation around autonomous vehicles has become a beguilement from a lot of the significant conversation that city need to be make about their future decent now . People areworriedabout autonomous vehiclesadding more cars to street , and Papandreou aver the metropolis could easy bring in some variety of congestion pricing to discourage this . But his parameter is that by outride laser - focalize on sum up residential concentration , and improve transportation system choice , and making residential district walkable , the problem takes care of itself . “ We have to increase housing supply , ” said Papandreou . “ And if we increase living accommodations provision , you do n’t need railway car at all . ”
[ San Francisco Smart City Challenge ]
low-priced housingCitiesSan FranciscoSelf - driving carstransportationurbanism
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