SwingingTheLamp

From the passenger’s perspective, a taxi and a self-driving car are functionally identical. But back when Uber, Lyft, and the rest were offering cheap rides subsidized by VC money, all that happened was that they made traffic congestion slightly, but measurably, worse. People didn’t give up private cars in large numbers, though.

If we get self-driving cars, then people’s private cars can add to the problem by cruising around empty most of the time, and if they’re not in them, there’s nobody to be bothered by traffic delays. The only way to achieve the dream of eliminating gridlock would be to ban private cars. And if that were politically feasible, why not just do it now with transit?

How will that help? By some studies, about 30% of traffic on downtown city streets is drivers circulating looking for street parking. With self-driving cars, they could cause congestion by circulating all day instead of parking.

We haven’t banned cars, but my city did put a park-and-ride lot at each end of its one BRT line. It’s pretty great, now the haters get to complain that BRT is a failure because nobody rides it, AND that it’s useless because those lots are always full.

Indeed, never try to outrun a bush fire. Stand your ground, make yourself look big, and intimidate it by staring it down.