Autonomous Vehicles Might Drive Cities to Financial Ruin

[JMAC]

.

https://www.wired.com/story/autonomo...daily_list1_p2


" The problem, as speaker Nico Larco, director of the Urbanism Next Center at the University of Oregon, explained, is that many cities balance their budgets using money brought in by cars: gas taxes, vehicle registration fees, traffic tickets, and billions of dollars in parking revenue. But driverless cars don't need these things: Many will be electric, will never get a ticket, and can circle the block endlessly rather than park. Because these sources account for somewhere between 15 and 50 percent of city transportation revenue in America, as autonomous vehicles become more common, huge deficits are ahead. "

" When driverless cars take the place of Uber or Lyft, cities will be asked to take on the burden of paying for low-income residents to travel, with whatever quarters they can find lying around in city couches.
_Result: Cities will be even less able to serve all their residents with public spaces and high-quality services. Even rich people won't like that.

" It will take great power and great leadership to head off this grim future. Here's an idea, from France: There, the government charges 3 percent on the total gross salaries of all employees of companies with more than 11 employees, and the proceeds fund a local transport authority. (The tax is levied on the employer not the employee, and in return, employees receive subsidized or free travel on public transport.)

At the Ann Arbor meeting, Andreas Mai, vice president of market development at Keolis, said that the Bordeaux transit authority charges a flat fee of about $50 per month for unlimited access to all forms of transit (trams, trains, buses, bikes, ferries, park and ride).

The hard-boiled US crowd listening to him audibly gasped at that figure. EDIT: Never happen in Merica, or at least anytime soon, 'cuz, you know, "Socialism"

Ridership is way up, the authority has brought many more buses into service, and it is recovering far more of its expenditures than any comparable US entity. Mai said it required a very strong leader to pull together 28 separate transit systems and convince them to hand over their budgets to the local authority. But it happened. "

It's all just money. We have it; we just need to allocate it better. That will mean viewing public transit as a crucial element of well-being in America. [B]And, in the meantime, we need to press Pause on aggressive plans to deploy driverless cars in cities across the United States. "[/B]Bueno I say! 'cuz, in any case:

As a 70 yr old car guy since my preteen days, I'm glad I'm unlikely to outlive the ability (permission) to own and drive good 'ol fire-breathing, awesome sounding, IC engines; at least away from urban environs. "Real" cars of the last 100+ years, glad I've known ya.

____________________

EDIT: Speaking of fire breathing, The New ZR1 Shoots Flames At Full Throttle. - clip is 28 seconds long.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dJsmrNianLg


.

[Questortapes74]

Reminds me of 1975...





https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=4gqx-8civG4

youtube.com/watch?v=4gqx-8civG4

[Still-One]

You forgot to show the benefit we will all receive when autonomous vehicles put many of the personal injury lawyers out of business. The peace of mind of not having to listen their incessant crap offsets all the other negatives.

Like you I won't be around to see it. A lot of what we grew up as "the nom" is buried and gone.

[Antonmb]

I’m actually hoping autonomous cars become viable just about the time they take away my license[emoji41]. That way we can stay in our country home longer and remain more independent. “Alexa, take me to my doctor appointment, and then to the grocery store.” Or “Hey Siri, I don’t remember where I live - take me home please.”

[Questortapes74]

I have one last musing about this topic. I know it’s cliche but it just “feels” right for myself, but the below scene from the Star Trek movie was perfect minus the boring dialogue and a much needed change in the tune being played. The classic that best fits is Red Barchetta by Rush...



https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=MeRghYqi090

youtube.com/watch?v=MeRghYqi090

[JMAC]

[QUOTE=Antonmb;920083]I’m actually hoping autonomous cars become viable just about the time they take away my license[emoji41]./QUOTE]


That has definately occured to me and I live alone with no plans to change that.


.