Slightly off-topic and maybe against the typical viewpoint of the site, but if they spent this much money on bike lanes, e-bikes and public transport, self driving cars (and all cars) would get much better.
“They” is a private profit-seeking corporation. Local governments claim monopolies on roads and public transport in the places Waymo operates. Existing public transportation infrastructure is also being heavily underused as both MUNI and BART in the Bay Area are facing financial shortfalls from a lack of ridership, and of the ridership they do have, there is a lot more fare evasion than there used to be.
There isn’t a single day that goes by when I’m passing through a station in San Francisco anymore that I don’t see someone (and usually multiple someones) hopping the gates into BART and several times a week I’ll see one of the fare gates to MUNI has been forced open and is out of service. MUNI and BART could probably stave off some of the losses if they just put actual police there to ticket and/or arrest fare evaders, at least when it’s busiest.
One obstacle to increasing the amount of bikes lanes isn't money, but opposition to reducing the amount of curbside space for parking.
My hope is AVs will reduce car ownership, which in turn reduces the amount of curbside space for required cars (Hopefully AVs can be parked at a few centralised parking lots). In turn this will allow for more bike lanes and bus lanes leading to improved active transport and public transport options.
"They" spend a totally insane amount on roads. This year's Caltrans budget is $25 billion. They are planning to waste it all on widening roads that don't need it.
SllX|1 year ago
There isn’t a single day that goes by when I’m passing through a station in San Francisco anymore that I don’t see someone (and usually multiple someones) hopping the gates into BART and several times a week I’ll see one of the fare gates to MUNI has been forced open and is out of service. MUNI and BART could probably stave off some of the losses if they just put actual police there to ticket and/or arrest fare evaders, at least when it’s busiest.
JumpCrisscross|1 year ago
At least in New York it’s politically touchy to discuss penalising fare skippers. (Granted, our police are municipal while the subway is state.)
kieranmaine|1 year ago
My hope is AVs will reduce car ownership, which in turn reduces the amount of curbside space for required cars (Hopefully AVs can be parked at a few centralised parking lots). In turn this will allow for more bike lanes and bus lanes leading to improved active transport and public transport options.
jeffbee|1 year ago
fire_lake|1 year ago
toephu2|1 year ago