Jason Slaughter:
So it seems what we really need is not driver-less cars, it’s car-less drivers. We need to limit where cars can go and that includes autonomous vehicles. We need fewer cars in cities, so we should definitely tear down urban freeways that divide neighborhoods and turn the space into parks, shops, and houses. Cars should go around cities, and not through them. We should make it impossible to drive through the middle of the city by car. The most direct route should only be accessible by walking, cycling, and public transit, enforced by modal filters. We also need to lower speed limits now, to make the streets safer today, but also to reduce noise and pollution. Lowering speed limits can sometimes be controversial, but after it's done there is nearly universal support to keep them low. So let’s do it now, before AVs take a foothold. We need to remove parking, especially surface parking lots. We’re never going to be able to charge for parking once cars can drive themselves, so let’s start removing parking spaces now, and turning them into something more useful. And let’s stop building any new parking garages too. After all, they tell us they won’t even be necessary once we have autonomous vehicles, right? So let’s not build them at all. Instead, let’s build more mixed-use walkable neighborhoods, so that the places where people live, work, and shop are closer together, making it easy to get to where you’re going without needing a car at all. And safe sidewalks and bike lanes should be part of the standard street design guidelines, so that they're built automatically with every new construction. We need to invest in functional and viable public transit, especially infrastructure that is difficult to remove. History has shown us that bus routes will get overrun by cars, so we need more trams and trains, and a lot more dedicated transit lanes. And we have to ensure that public transit remains under democratic control, so that it can never be captured by private corporations. And most importantly of all, and I cannot stress this enough, we need to put a price on driving. The gas tax is going away as cars transition to electric anyway, so let's replace it with something better. Cars should be charged based on how much they drive, but also when they drive too, with a higher price during periods of peak congestion.
