ROBO-COMMUTE

Autonomous/driverless vehicles are the latest hot conversation topic in cities – with the help of some overt boosting by motor vehicle manufacturers and certain business disrupters like Uber and Google.

Our interest in the topic revolves around the effect these new mobility methods might have on planning and design of our cities.

Some boosters are making outrageous claims about outcomes – traffic congestion will be eliminated, car parking as part of building developments can be re-allocated to other uses, etc.

It seems to us that in the foreseeable future the most attractive outcome for our city will be that the autonomous vehicle may become a primary means of transportation between travel hubs and final destinations -  the so called “last mile”. So, instead of a commuter driving his/her own vehicle to and from a park & ride facility beside a rail or bus station, the autonomous vehicle (carrying 10 or 12 passengers) can do the job. Positive city design outcomes with this scenario include:-

• Fewer private cars utilizing existing road infrastructure
• Suburbanites may find they need only one car instead two that many are forced to own and leave parked and unused for a large part of the day.
• Lots of asphalt paved prime Government controlled real estate used for park & ride facilities throughout the city can be released for positive revenue earning development outcomes.

There are plenty of examples of this “last mile” travel concept already operating in city environments: have a look at the videos and news articles here.
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It will be interesting to observe whether our little city of Brisbane can progress to adopting the concept. The value enhancement created by re-purposing current low value park & ride real estate would go a long way towards funding such an enterprise.