91视频

There has been a lot of buzz lately about autonomous vehicles (AVs) and what impact they鈥檒l have on the transportation world. The one sure thing is that when they do become a reality, things will be confusing and a bit chaotic on the roadways. Federal and state governments are beginning to address the various issues involved in their introduction, and cities are certainly very concerned about their impact.

There have been claims made recently that transit will essentially become irrelevant because everybody will simply be able to use an AV anytime and go anywhere they want. Reality will be a bit different.

Much about AVs and their capabilities and limitations (including cost) is still unknown, but the one reality that won鈥檛 change is the city environment. As the situation in New York and other major cities throughout the world has shown, there is a finite street capacity for vehicles. Placing limits on private vehicle use is increasingly common. The reality is that transit is far more efficient than automobiles at moving people on the surface, let alone below and above the street level. And expanding that street network is absurd given that Portland already has 39 percent of its surface area in streets.

The best future scenario involves using high-capacity, high-speed transit for major transportation corridors linking the higher density areas within a city, and relying on a flexible and variable array of options for travel away from those corridors and centers of activity. Conventional bus service may make sense in many urban areas, but 鈥渇irst and last mile鈥� service may be better served through micro-transit vehicles circulating through neighborhoods, AVs operated by Lyft, bike and scooter rentals, and options yet to be envisioned.