New technology will decrease car ownership, but leave cities with new bills to pay With Uber, Lyft, and leading automakers running trials for ridesharing with local transit agencies and testing automated drivers, a new future for urban transportation is beginning to take shape. According to a new report, ?Driverless Future: A Policy Roadmap for City Leaders,? prepared by researchers from Arcadia, H&R Advising, and Sam Schwartz Consulting, that shift will change cities in many of the same ways you?ve heard before: roadways won?t look the same and urban design will need to adapt to new transportation realities. But this report also offers some new ways of looking at how this shift will impact U.S. cities.
First of all, the study attempts to place numbers on just how many drivers will be impacted by the technology shift, and how many could afford or decide to switch to AV vehicles or a combination of AV rides and ridesharing, effectively abandoning private ownership. Looking at three different metro areas?Los Angeles, New York City, and Dallas?the report estimates significant shifts in car ownership with more car owners expected to stop driving based on density. L.A. could see 1.8 to 2.2 million driver switch (36-44 percent of all drivers,) New York City might see 2.4 to 3.6 million (46-60 percent) leave their cars behind, and Dallas might see 600,000 to 900,000 (21-31 percent) get out from behind the wheel. With some of the negative aspects of car ownership reduce...