Don't Let 'FOMO' Ruin Transportation Planning

"More likely than not, your elected officials are basing mobility policy decisions not on cost-benefit analysis or strategic foresight, but on a classic modern insecurity: FOMO."

That's David Zipper's theory, explained in an article for CityLab. When transportation decision makers start make the FOMO mistake, cities get saddled with expensive demonstration projects for autonomous vehicles that show off more than provide benefits for residents.

There are other kinds of projects that move forward as a result of FOMO, according to Zipper, like the Hyperloop of the Boring Company, both of which have made progress, in iterative forms somewhat resembling their original ideas, in Las Vegas, Chicago, Pennsylvania, Missouri, and a route connecting Baltimore and Washington, D.C.

"The problem with these projects," writes Zipper, "is that they are the policy equivalent of Instagram glamour shots, crafted to elicit admiration and envy rather than improve lives. And, like the mayor of Springfield in TheSimpsons who is determined to get a new monorail before Shelbyville does, their backers insist on unveiling the shiny new technology ahead of anyone else."