The Sustainability of Automated Transport
This was based on a lecture I attended titled 'Sustainable Urban Mobility', given by Nick Reed. It was primarily about automation, and about the Greenwich GATEway project
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| The Stages of Automation |
By replacing a human
by a computer, you essentially remove any dangers that are a result of human
error. Whether it be driving under the influence, poor conditions, or simply a
slow reaction time, all of these can result in a traffic accident. The congestion
that follows reduces efficiency, lowering quality of life and losing millions
of pounds for every hour delayed. By going automatic, you potentially remove
these problems. However, that's not to say the technology itself will not be
without human impact. In the USA, 3.5 million people are employed as truckers;
it is the biggest job sector in 29 states- by going automatic, millions will be
unemployed. The unemployment will save the trucking economy over $168 billion
in fuel, wages, and time, but is that money worth mass unemployment? Perhaps if
it was spent on upskilling their newly-redundant workforce, but the chances of
that are slim.
Implementation on a
smaller scale however, could improve the accessibility of an urban area.
Semi-automated cars designed for disabled drivers are being tested as a means
of aiding parking in busy areas. The idea is that the driver stops near the
space, exits the vehicle, and then remotely parks the car in a space too small
to be used by a wheelchair user. By doing this, municipal governments could
remove wheelchair-only parking and use the space more efficiently for multiple,
smaller spaces. Although the technology is not without fault (the mobile signal
occasionally drops), with further development it has the potential to make a
city accessible for all.
Automated transport
could alter settlement design. By being able to travel a greater distance in a
shorter amount of time, it encourages urban sprawl. This has problems in
itself- not every car or bus will be automatic, so their fuel consumption will
increase. In addition, by increasing the size of a city, you make it harder to
reach places on foot, encouraging further driving. One way this could be
combatted is by using roads as cycle lanes as well; automated cars only need
narrow roads as they drift far less. This means that roads can be modified to
allow bikes. In the case of Brazil, some roads have been replaced entirely by
automated tram line and bike lanes.
The future of this
new technology is uncertain, the many applications in the transport industry
have both their positives and negatives. At this point, it is impossible to
assess the impact on a locale, as every place is different.
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