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