Road design, transportation and walkability

[tomh009]

Given unlimited road capacity and parking availability, I agree. But as those are constrained, the problem with the taxi model is that AV taxis potentially consume just as much parking space and road capacity as private cars. And the energy they consume is not free, either, even if they are built as energy-efficient.

I think you forgot what I said in the message the message I was replying to was replying to: “Autonomous vehicles would hypothetically be great for low-volume public transit”, then I gave a specific example and finished by observing that “They have no place substituting for any rail service or even a busy bus line.”. I am well aware that autonomous vehicles, even if they can be made to work as well as one imagines when one thinks of autonomous vehicles, cannot handle the high traffic associated with dense urban areas.

Fair enough. But some of those issues would still appear on busy intercity links such as the 401 -- or Hwy 7.

What might work is an automated mid-sized vehicle (similar to a large van) that can pick up maybe 10-15 passengers at specified locations, and take them to their destinations, but shared with other passengers. Similar to how something like WheelTrans works today.