Unless the train comes to my house, it does not solve the same problem as a self-driving car. It solves the same problem as a bus. I have to go where it stops, and it has to stop where I need. You can throw all kinds of should on that, like ‘well things should be near stations,’ and ‘stations should be near people,’ but that won’t mean they are. And if we’re just wishing, we may as well skip a step and say, ‘things should be near people,’ rendering the whole thing moot.
Go right ahead and say ‘walkable cities are an excellent goal,’ but the point is, I don’t live in a goal.
You don’t live somewhere that self-driving cars can fully autonomously navigate either. No-one does.
Orienting urbanism towards public transit and the conditions that support it (mixed use zoning, pedestrian connectivity, reduced/removed parking mininums, etc.) are incremental steps that can be taken right now, today and make cities better places to live in, unlike self-driving cars which don’t even fucking exist and only serve as a stupid carrot on a stupid stick for NA to stay hilariously dependent on car-centric infrastructure.
‘Gradual change can happen right now’ is really underlining what’s wrong.
Again - sure, trains and public transit and walkable cities are fine goals. We can and should. But cheekily brushing off the desire for a perpendicular technology that’s already partially demonstrated (and gets more feasible year by year) is not being honest about the problem or the solution. Will self-driving cars solve problems caused by cars? Of fucking course not, just look at the words in that sentence.
But nor are they at-odds with positive change, except in the agendas of assholes who will pick any excuse. Elmo defrauded multiple states with the promise of holes in the ground. This tech is not to blame for the stupid evil done in the name of this tech.
If by some miracle we have both sensible urban design and self-driving cars in about ten years, the demand for those cars will be drastically reduced and we’ll all be better-off for it, but those cars will still be really fucking useful.
Unless the train comes to my house, it does not solve the same problem as a self-driving car. It solves the same problem as a bus. I have to go where it stops, and it has to stop where I need. You can throw all kinds of should on that, like ‘well things should be near stations,’ and ‘stations should be near people,’ but that won’t mean they are. And if we’re just wishing, we may as well skip a step and say, ‘things should be near people,’ rendering the whole thing moot.
Go right ahead and say ‘walkable cities are an excellent goal,’ but the point is, I don’t live in a goal.
You don’t live somewhere that self-driving cars can fully autonomously navigate either. No-one does.
Orienting urbanism towards public transit and the conditions that support it (mixed use zoning, pedestrian connectivity, reduced/removed parking mininums, etc.) are incremental steps that can be taken right now, today and make cities better places to live in, unlike self-driving cars which don’t even fucking exist and only serve as a stupid carrot on a stupid stick for NA to stay hilariously dependent on car-centric infrastructure.
‘Gradual change can happen right now’ is really underlining what’s wrong.
Again - sure, trains and public transit and walkable cities are fine goals. We can and should. But cheekily brushing off the desire for a perpendicular technology that’s already partially demonstrated (and gets more feasible year by year) is not being honest about the problem or the solution. Will self-driving cars solve problems caused by cars? Of fucking course not, just look at the words in that sentence.
But nor are they at-odds with positive change, except in the agendas of assholes who will pick any excuse. Elmo defrauded multiple states with the promise of holes in the ground. This tech is not to blame for the stupid evil done in the name of this tech.
If by some miracle we have both sensible urban design and self-driving cars in about ten years, the demand for those cars will be drastically reduced and we’ll all be better-off for it, but those cars will still be really fucking useful.