Autonomous Vehicles Are Coming, and California Isn’t Ready – Streetsblog California
"Reynolds, testifying to the committee, said that as currently worded the federal act would prohibit states and cities from adopting, maintaining, or enforcing “any rules or standards regulating the design, construction, or performance of AV systems with respect to safety, data recording, cybersecurity, human-machine interface, crash-worthiness, post-crash behavior, or automation function.” It would also prohibit states from promulgating any rules on any other issue regarding AVs, including requiring any of them to be electric or subjecting them to VMT fees. It would nullify S.B. 1298, which in 2012 called for the California Department of Motor Vehicles to create safety rules for testing AVs in the state, and it could potentially nullify the rules that resulted from that law as well as prevent the DMV from updating them—although they sorely need updating, and the DMV is in the process of doing so. The act, said Reynolds, “jeopardizes the state’s ability to regulate safety, congestion, and environmental benefits of AVs. Preemption is a feature, not a bug.”
--------------
The rest of the developed world is enjoying high-speed rail, and we are dithering while trains go off the tracks, bridges teeter on the edge of collapse, and we have a multi-trillion dollar deficit in just fixing the infrastructure we already have. The rest of the developed word is planning cities around a (very near) future of electric, self-driving, shared vehicles, with homes powered by solar energy. We are under the boot of a federal government that is bought and paid for by big oil.
2 comments:
To be fair you also have a lot of just plain anti-car/pro public transit people trying to do everything they can to make it harder for people to have cars in order to force more public transit. You'll run into them anywhere you hear promotion of the word "walkable". You might notice this is little more than a marketing synonym for "sustainable" which fell out of favor.
But US public transit is largely failing everywhere.
US will fail on automated cars as well if the anti-car/public transit folks have any success. Cars (automated or not) provide the greatest flexibility for folks. Public transit is largely for a drone workforce and even then there has been significant change in when and where people work to make public transit less than suitable for much of the population.
These days more people work from home, or as independent contractors. Many jobs allow work and interaction with colleagues and clients to take place online, reducing the need for travel and also the daily commute. Service workers still need to get to the work site, until many of those jobs are replaced by automation and robots. (Like in the manufacturing industry.)
If new suburban development integrates basic needs of households nearby (food, clothing, schools, and medical care), there isn’t as much need for a car. Online shopping and home delivery will also reduce the need for driving all over town, and it will save time — that’s already happening.
Public transit is expensive to maintain and much of it is in bad condition in this country. In most cases, the fares are expensive and the schedules and stop locations are inconvenient.
It’s much more convenient to travel by car or personal shuttle service.
People will still choose to travel from place to place, but perhaps for different reasons, and at different times. However, group behavior dictates that, no matter how carefully cities and travel routes are planned, we will never stop the tendency for lots of people to want to travel to the same places at the same time.
Urban planners and policy makers need to start consulting experts in psychology and sociology to better understand and predict how human behavior might adapt (or fail to adapt) to change.
Post a Comment