18 replies to this topic

[BlueMound]

HOW TO DESIGN STREETS FOR HUMANS - AND SELF-DRIVING CARS

In the future, the transportation planners suggest, vehicle lanes can be a lot thinner. Machines, after all, should be better at driving straight—and less distracted by Snapchat—than their human counterparts. That means more room in major boulevards for walking, biking, even loitering. Tiny parks might exist where parking meters once lived—no need to park self-driving taxis owned by companies, not individual drivers. In fact, vehicles might not even have their own dedicated spaces at all. “Flex zones” could be turned over to different services and vehicles for different times of day. During rush hour, there could be more lanes open to vehicles. During heavy delivery hours, there could be curb space dedicated to Amazon delivery vans (or landing delivery drones). At night, street space next to bars could be dedicated to picking up and dropping off carousers from driverless taxicabs.

https://www.wired.com/story/nacto-streets-self-driving-cars/

[Doohickie]

I'm so not ready for the future.

[Electricron]

Computers might be better than humans at driving cars straighter, but humans will still walk or ride bikes in crooked lines in lanes next to them. It'll be humans crashing into robots, just like we do in front of trains that run straighter than an arrow at railroad crossings, whether we are driving our cars, riding our bikes, running or walking on foot. 

Of course we will not be ready for the future, golly - we are not ready for the present. 

[renamerusk]

SDC's can be hacked!

[renamerusk]

Tonight's pedestrian and cyclist committee discussed several options on W7th for a new configuration between the river and University, they seem to be leaning towards 2 vehicle lanes, dedicated bus Lanes, and a median/turn lane.

 

 

I worry that the usual suspects that scream about taking away lanes of traffic will lose their mind over this.  Maybe I'm wrong, but this is a high profile street with heavy traffic and a lot of people with influence use it to get home from downtown.

 

 

No vehicular lanes are leaving. Only bike and parking lanes.

 

 Is widening of the sidewalks under consideration? If not, it should be.

 

 7th Street, between University and the river could become a Euro-style corridor with sidewalk cafes and small shops with the calming of traffic.

[Austin55]

Here's the proposed layout

https://imgur.com/h4tfWpB

[renamerusk]

The proposed reconfiguration looks pretty good; and the added landscape, depending of course on selection, will be a big plus.

[Electricron]

It might look great, but it is a disaster for bicycle riders.

Bikes sharing lanes with buses, who thought of that idea was  safe?

 

If the bus is running faster than the bike, how does it pass the bike with 3 feet of clearance?

If the bus is stopped at a bus stop, how does the bike pass the bus?

In both cases, either the bus or the bike will have to leave the shared lane. 

So what''s the point of having a shared lane?

[Doohickie]

If the bus is running faster than the bike, how does it pass the bike with 3 feet of clearance?

If the bus is stopped at a bus stop, how does the bike pass the bus?

In both cases, either the bus or the bike will have to leave the shared lane. 

So what''s the point of having a shared lane?

 

I had the same concerns when they proposed bus-bike lanes downtown.  I really haven't seen any problems there.  This may be a different situation with longer uninterrupted runs so the issues could be different.

[JBB]

What if we lived in a world where the bus driver and the bike rider were patient and didn't choose to leave their lane to make up 30 seconds of travel time?  *mind blown*

[renamerusk]

What if we lived in a world where the bus driver and the bike rider were patient and didn't choose to leave their lane to make up 30 seconds of travel time?  *mind blown*

 

 Well said.  In the real world, every one must yield or stop in traffic from pedestrian to cyclist to bus to automobile. Nothing has unlimited, uninterrupted movement at all times.

[Electricron]

What if we lived in a world where the bus driver and the bike rider were patient and didn't choose to leave their lane to make up 30 seconds of travel time?  *mind blown*

But we don't live in your imaginary world where bus drivers or bike riders are willing to go much slower.

Bikers aren't going to wait 30 seconds to a minute behind a parked bus at a bus stop to pick up or drop off passengers. They will pass the bus.  Buses aren't going to crawl behind a bike climbing uphill at a pace slower than walking. They will pass the bike.

[JBB]

Where in that post did I say that actually existed? I guess thats what I get for not using the sarcasm font.

[renamerusk]

Presumably, the speed limit along West Seventh is 30mph.  The narrowing from three to two lanes will calm the road and make compliance of the speed limit a far more actuality.  I imagine that cars, busses, bikes and people will be able to manage their interaction with the road much safer at lower and calmer speed.

 

If not, there are laws that can take care of that.

[johnfwd]

Obviously this is not good news for the future technological feasibility of self-driving vehicles.  Whether the vehicle is traversing a limited access road or a busy interstate highway, total reliance on the AI application to a motor vehicle is, in my opinion, still a risky proposition and will remain so for the foreseeable future.  Story of the tragic news on the CNN website link below.

 

https://www.cnn.com/...seat/index.html

[Stadtplan]

That was tough to read, johnfwd. DC voltage can be nasty stuff to deal with in an accident.

[Doohickie]

DC voltage can be nasty stuff to deal with in an accident.

 

Yeah, there's definitely a safety issue going on here.  If it turns out the occupants were burned alive it could set e-cars back similar to what rear-end collisions did to Pintos.

[Stadtplan]

Will be interesting over time to see if there is any real impact of extremely low frequency (ELF) electromagnetic fields (EMF) in electric vehicles (EV's) .  Probably not something auto manufacturers are lining up to study.

[Doohickie]

Eh.  We're already exposed to them in homes.