Are Cars the Future of our Public Transportation?

Watching with interest all the advances in robotics and automation used in the DARPA challenge I wonder if the technology will make its way into commercial products. Actually, I know it will. Soon enough we will have cars smart enough to drive themselves on public roads.

This would give us the possibility of a new kind of public transportation option. Imagine hundreds of "taxis" controlled by a central brain distributing cars to anyone in need (and willing to pay the fare). Instead of waiting for a bus and travelling along the existing routes you would be chauferred directly to your destination. You could work out all sorts of algorithms to maximize passenger load and efficiency, but I am not concerned with details.

This thought experiment as envisioned by many futurists should make us pause instead of encouraging us to proceed along our current path of development. I think the automated car public transportation option is a great evolutionary step that would fit into our existing urban landscape very easily, but it isn't what we need. We need a revolutionary change that will eliminate cars entirely.

Do we really need to terrorize our urban neighborhoods with yet another scheme that will send millions of two-ton hunks of metal rushing down the streets at deadly speeds? Do we need yet another option to prevent us from using our feet and bodies for travel? Yes, cars can be the future of public transportation, but I don't think they should be.

I believe that arranging our urban landscapes for human-scaled travel, human-scaled interaction, and removing cars from our streets is an achievable goal that will increase everyone's quality of life. A professor with the World Cancer Research Fund has just recommended that London replicate the public transportation system of Bogota, focusing on pedestrians and bicycling. It's a truly different approach and one that has been absent from the infrastructure debate in the US in most cases.

Bike Lanes: A first step

Not that we need to remove cars entirely, there will always be a need for trash/recycling collection, vans for the plumbers and electricians, and other actual needs, but much of our current travel can be radically altered. I once thought we'd have to see a lot of important government and corporate policies enacted regarding every aspect of life, but closing down streets for certain times of the day would be an effective and easy step to start with.