Cities Are Putting Off Plans for Self-Driving Cars

Brooks Rainwater shares insights into a National League of Cities report titled City of the Future: Mobility & Technology, which "examines current transportation trends to forecast future developments in the urban environment."

Rainwater and the Tech Insider team "delved into the transportation plans from the 50 largest cities as well as the largest cities in each state" and found "a widening gap between where technology is rapidly taking us and where cities are planning to go."

For example, the report found "[o]nly 6% of cities’ transportation plans consider the potential effect of driverless technology," and "[j]ust 3% of these plans look at companies like Uber and Lyft — even though they operate in 60 of the 68 markets."

Rainwater responds by presenting four key ideas for cities to consider as they catch up to the rapidly approaching mobility technologies of the future.

1. Demographic and workforce trends will impact mobility in cities
2. How we pay for infrastructure will change
3. Public and private mobility systems will grow in the coming years
4. New modes of transportation will become available

The National League of Cities report was also included in coverage of cities' preparations for self-driving cars by Kim-Mai Cutler in November. A recent study published in the Journal of Planning Education and Research, and featured here on Planetizen, examines preparations for self-driving cars at the metropolitan planning organization level.