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posted by takyon on Tuesday March 12 2019, @10:46AM   Printer-friendly
from the unparktilect:-the-wheelbound dept.

Submitted via IRC for SoyCow1984

Stingy driverless cars will clog future streets instead of parking

It's a nightmarish vision of San Francisco's future, like something out of science fiction: streets full of driverless cars, crawling along implacably but at a snail's pace, snarling traffic and bringing the city to a standstill from the iconic Ferry Building to Union Square.

But according to Adam Millard-Ball, associate professor of environmental studies at the University of California, Santa Cruz, this scenario could come to pass simply as a result of rational behavior on the part of autonomous vehicle owners. Congestion pricing that imposes a fee or tax for driving in the downtown core could help prevent this future, but cities need to act fast, before self-driving cars are common, he argues.

Those conclusions emerge from an analysis published in the journal Transport Policy, in which Millard-Ball used game theory and a computer model of San Francisco traffic patterns to explore the effects of autonomous vehicles on parking. He found that the gridlock happens because self-driving cars don't need to park near a rider's destination – in fact, they don't need to park at all.

The autonomous vehicle parking problem (DOI: 10.1016/j.tranpol.2019.01.003) (DX)


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  • (Score: 2) by urza9814 on Tuesday March 12 2019, @01:36PM (3 children)

    by urza9814 (3954) on Tuesday March 12 2019, @01:36PM (#813232) Journal

    Three problems with this scenario:

    1) Minimum speed limits are a thing that exists. Often not posted and not enforced, but they can be if required. And they'll probably also be programmed into the cars in the first place.

    2) If traffic is that congested, that means sending your car to drive around and around in circles is going to mean standing there waiting for it to get through the traffic when you're done. Might be easier to just park the damn thing. This could offer another alternative to dealing with the issue too -- more one-way streets, such that it can't just go around the block, it has to go further. Parking may be expensive, but people will also pay good money to not be standing around on the sidewalk bored. Hell, many times I've paid five bucks to park in a garage for half an hour rather than circle around the block looking for free street parking. Standing around on the sidewalk waiting for my car sounds like it would be even worse, and therefore provide a greater incentive to pay for the parking.

    3) A lot of people propose using self-driving cars like a taxi/rideshare. So, if you own the car, you're rich enough to not care about paying for parking. If you DON'T own the car, it'll pick someone else up next door and take them wherever they're going, and when you're done you'll get the next empty car that's coming your way. Only way to keep it circling the block would be to keep spamming the call button, and after the third time that it arrives and you aren't there it'll probably interpret it as a DoS attack and deprioritize or ignore you.

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  • (Score: 2) by Nuke on Tuesday March 12 2019, @01:58PM (2 children)

    by Nuke (3162) on Tuesday March 12 2019, @01:58PM (#813250)

    Minimum speed limits are a thing that exists. Often not posted and not enforced

    Minumum speed limits are not enforcable because in most cities the traffic is stationary or moving slowly because of congestion. You can't drive faster than the cars in front. The UK Dept of Transport gives 14.8 mph as the average speed of traffic in London in the morning, and the average speed nationwide as only 23.6 mph. Shown here [thisismoney.co.uk]
    The analysis in the article seemed to assume the SD cars would drive slowly deliberately, to save fuel, but it would not need to be deliberate in the UK or most European cities.

    • (Score: 2) by urza9814 on Tuesday March 12 2019, @02:23PM

      by urza9814 (3954) on Tuesday March 12 2019, @02:23PM (#813262) Journal

      That's already accounted for in the law, and they WOULD be enforceable in a situation like in TFS.

      Here's an example of how such laws are typically written (this is from Maryland):

      (a) Slow speed impeding traffic prohibited.- Unless reduced speed is necessary for the safe operation of the vehicle or otherwise is in compliance with law, a person may not willfully drive a motor vehicle at such a slow speed as to impede the normal and reasonable movement of traffic.

      - https://law.justia.com/codes/maryland/2010/transportation/title-21/subtitle-8/21-804/ [justia.com]

      So yeah, if there's a car in front of you, ramming into it in order to meet the minimum speed would not be considered "safe operation of the vehicle"...but "I'm waiting for someone" is still not a valid excuse for excessively slow speeds. The car in front of the line gets the ticket, and if it was happening repeatedly then the local government would probably be filing lawsuits or pressing charges against the manufacturer for intentionally programming the vehicle to violate the law.

    • (Score: 3, Interesting) by Whoever on Tuesday March 12 2019, @02:52PM

      by Whoever (4524) on Tuesday March 12 2019, @02:52PM (#813282) Journal

      I commute in one of my cars and do little other driving in it. Over half my commute is on freeways.

      The average speed that my car has recorded over the past 10 months was (before I recently reset it) 22 mph.