Friday Reads – 9 August 2019

1. Berlin going car-free on main retail streets (c.f. Oxford Street): https://www.citylab.com/transportation/2019/08/walking-in-berlin-friedrichstrasse-tauentzienstrasse/595597/

2. The suggestion about gated crossings for AVs is really quite absurd. Not only will no city authority that is elected be prepared to go in this direction while most (at least in Europe) are pushing heavily in the opposite direction – to reduce car traffic and make city streets more people friendly places – but to meet the suggested approach it would have to be on an all-or-nothing basis. If gated crossings for pedestrians are essential to let AVs through, then the whole of the city (or at least the city centre) would need to be so equipped before AVs could be allowed. Anyone with any knowledge of city streets will know just how impossible that would be, even in the unlikely event that the city authorities supported this approach. There would be neither the finance nor the political will to achieve it. Pushing this approach is hardly likely to promote the interests of the automotive industry,

3. @quinlet

   Yes, absurd in Europe – but there will be many tech companies and politicians pushing for this in US cities. Likely starting in high tech campuses and spreading from there, as most suburbs don’t have much of a walking culture.

4. @LBM: If the AV suppliers need to pay for it, then it will never happen….

5. As LBM clearly understands, the USA is “different” – they already have “jaywalking” laws that are utterly insane to anyone from elsewhere. In many places, it is illegal & may be an arrestable offence to walk across a road that is completely empty of traffic in either direction, except at specified places & times.
   And this ( To us, utterly bonkers ) mindset is well-established “over there” – the “AV” proposal is simply more of the same.

6. @LBM
   There may well be more room and political will in the USA but this doesn’t get away from the ‘all-or-nothing’ consequences of this approach. It will not be sufficient just to equip a few blocks or a corridor with these gates – if the argument in favour is considered justifiable – because that will still leave many roads without the gates and with all the ‘problems’ that the automotive sector have described. You would have to equip every block and every street within quite a large area before allowing AVs to operate. This, I think, is the absolute crunch issue because that will be nigh on impossible, even in the USA. As soon as you start to say that such gating is not needed everywhere, you fatally undermine the argument for having it at all.

7. Greg T: When I visited Seattle in 1996 I was warned by the friends I was staying with never to cross a road except at a pedestrian light or where I saw locals crossing as I’d get a ‘ticket’ otherwise. A week later I was in Manhattan, which I could just treat like London.

8. @quinlet

   Good points that point to the likely eventual use of AVs – only in full AV mode in lanes segregated from pedestrians and cyclists, like buslanes and highways, but in more driver control mode in mixed traffic (with AV over-ride to sense and prevent collisions). For pedestrians, it will be impossible to detect if a vehicle is in full AV mode or not (unless no driver is evident), so ‘jamming’ an AV by walking or throwing something in front of it to stop it will be very risky indeed. Whereas a full AV street could be easily fully stopped by merely walking into the lanes.

   So the full promised potential of AVs, like Segways, are not likely to be realised for many years yet, only a ‘practical’ subset.

9. @LBM: Ah, Segways…. Even less visible now than when they first came out and now completely overtaken by electric scooters… Which is basically what they always were…

10. SHLR
    Segways – well there’s a problem there, if you are a bicycle rider …
    The control movements & reflexes are ( more or less ) the exact opposite of those on a bicyle – because ( I think ) of the transverse, rather than longitudonal weheel arrangement.
    I’m a lifelong bike rider – but I lasted approximately 3 seconds on a Segway & I’m not going there again ….

11. I am attempting to visualise the nature and height of the proposed street barriers. I assume they would have to be high enough to prevent casual jumping. So at least 8 foot high and perhaps on reflection 12 foot fitted with spikes or razor wire on the top. Obviously the gates could be composed of railings but perhaps to discourage pedestrian jumpers and unproductive gazing the street barriers should be solid perhaps steel shuttering to save on costs. These could be covered with adverts to generate revenue but more importantly display signage warning of the penalties and liabilities if the a v barrier was infringed by pedestrians. I assume cycling lanes would have to go. Similarly buses and street cars.

    One additional problem is where do the AVs stop to pick up and drop off their passengers? It would be problematic if they used the pedestrian crossing gates. I am sure American street scapes would provide a unique vista as every street which permits sidewalks would need to be covered right in the furthest burbs.

    A further point is the existence of non AV private cars. These would need to be banned from street access to avoid accidents with AV vechicles and to also maximise the income of the AV fleet owners as effectively everyone would be compelled to use them. Ah only in America…..

12. I like the idea of completely fencing off the AV route for safety.
    Then you could provide a simple, positive mechanical guidance system rather than having to rely on loads of sensors and software.
    Then the capacity of the AVway could be greatly increased by coupling lots of AVs together rather than having to keep space between them for safety……..

13. @RogerB: You could also then supply them with power from over head wires, which saves using up all these earths mined in terrible conditions often in countries with a less than ideal human rights environment….

14. @SHLR – you could then give them a snappy acronym based on something like Tracked Remotely Activated Modular System. Nah, it will never catch on.

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