Highway spending increased by 90% in 2021. This is one of many reasons why car traffic is growing faster than population growth.

  • yimby@lemmy.caEnglish
    273·
    17 days ago

    Two facts:

    1. The average occupancy of a car in my North American city is 1.2 people per car. This does not vary much by city.
    2. Autonomous vehicles will almost certainly be worse for traffic than human driven cars. They will circle empty with no passengers and drive to pick up passengers empty (dead heading) even with a fully rideshare system. If there is widespread private ownership of autonomous vehicles (and you bet your butt that car companies will campaign for this aggressively to keep sales up), the dead heading problems only multiply. If you don’t believe me, look up any recent literature on the topic: by most accounts it will be worse, not better. Dead heading is only the tip of the iceberg of problems there.
    • Sauerkraut@discuss.tchncs.deEnglish
      4·
      16 days ago
      1. The average occupancy of a car in my North American city is 1.2 people per car. This does not vary much by city.
      2. Autonomous vehicles will almost certainly be worse for traffic than human driven cars.

      1. Is that for rush hour? Because, overall, the national average is closer to 1.5

      2. Fully agree.

    • AA5B@lemmy.worldEnglish
      31·
      16 days ago

      And what is the average occupancy of a bus in your North American city?

    • TheGalacticVoid@lemm.eeEnglish
      31·
      16 days ago
      1. How so? Wouldn’t autonomous cars disincentivize car ownership, meaning fewer cars that can be on the road?
      • dustyData@lemmy.worldEnglish
        3·
        16 days ago

        See the argument of induced demand: “Oh everyone is using self-driving cars, that means there’s more space for my car!”