Fast Company and Planetizen have recently written excellent articles on whether autonomous vehicles could create more community-minded transportation behavior.
For example, some of this could manifest in more people-centered street and road lighting, Fast Company notes.
With more people moving around outside as communities free up new space, people-oriented environments will overthrow vehicle-serving cities. People-scale lighting, for one, will take safety to a new and lowered level, as we’re seeing with wayfinding systems like +Light Line in Germany and the Netherlands. The LED strip lines the sidewalk’s edge and turns green to indicate “walk” and red for “stop,” alerting preoccupied smartphone users when to cross safely.
Tall and bulky streetlamps designed to illuminate roadways for vehicles can be replaced with shorter and intimate replacements. This is happening already in Nashville, where short, warmly lit streetlamps are creating environments equally inviting as functional. People-powered lighting has taken off in Las Vegas where LED streetlights powered by solar panels and kinetic footstep pads are illuminating walkways, charging phones, and powering security cameras. With every footstep, four to eight watts of energy is generated, and can save the nearly 100 million metrics tons of CO2 emitted by streetlights each year.
Meanwhile, Planetizen lists some of the policies that should be created in an AV world to “increase the livability and the social vibrancy of our communities.” Some of the proposed planning policies include:
- Integrate AVs with reliable, affordable, comfortable, convenient, and safe transit systems, because access to such systems predicts higher quality of life and improved mental health.
- Limit AV access in certain community, social space, and high pedestrian and cyclist densities. Establish clear AV (as well as transportation network company) drop-off and pick-up zones, and implement access limitations to create auto-free zones. These might include time-of-day pricing schemes or other options.
- Site schools and other civic institutions (e.g., community centers, libraries, etc.) for optimal accessibility on foot and by bicycle.
- Implement outreach programs that explain transportation choices and clearly articulate the benefits of walking and cycling to enhance and sustain active transportation. These programs might include walking and bicycling lunch programs, promotion of after-dinner strolls at restaurants, or ridesharing, particularly for people who have yet to establish work trip habits.
Read the complete articles at Fast Company and Planetizen