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Old Posted May 14, 2018, 1:04 AM
sundah sundah is offline
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Join Date: May 2018
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I've just discovered this forum which is unfortunate, as it could have been of considerable help in research I have been undertaking. Actually this has been an update of research I made in the early 1990s on how automated vehicles on automated highways could alter urban transportation.

The outcome of this later research can be seen at:
https://freedominu.com.au/learningzo...ntvehicles.php

Essentially, this research and the prevailing thrust of the forum are in accord. If I had been aware of it earlier I may have made more of the prospect of ultra-light vehicles for commuting, and I had not foreseen the likelihood of much longer commutes as vehicles became more lounge-like, or the possibility of the 'last-mile' of trips to a CBD being by public transit.

However I believe I have something to add, as indicated by the following abstract of the paper and one of its illustrations. There is a similar drawing of a New York type CBD.

"Automation will increase the capacity of freeways three or more times and reduce costs by a similar factor. Twin-deck, automated, light-vehicle-only tunnels can increase capacities nine times and reduce travel costs to about half those of a conventional urban freeway: and this with few NIMBYs, residents or property owners to mollify. All personal motorised trips to CBDs having transportation requirements like those of New York could be provided in ten tunnels not much larger than a conventional two lane tunnel. Those like London or Paris would require seven. Shared-autonomous-vehicles will greatly facilitate such possibilities by reducing the need for for parking, even negating the need in inner city areas. Costs will be significantly lower than conventional public transportation and should be met by users (no subsidies). These are powerful possibilities, yet the extent they will be realised will depend on the particulars of particular cities and the distance of a particular time."

"The drawing depicts a quarter of a London or Paris type CBD, showing tunnelled automated highway requirements if all personal vehicular travel were by automated cars and other light vehicles. It is close to scale although the number and sizes of the buildings is surmised.

A tunnelled AHS loop has six levels of four lanes (three for capacity and another to enable the necessary weaving and merging). One of the spurs to CBD stations is shown. Privately owned vehicles would return along the spur, park themselves an wait to be summoned. Shared vehicles would go where ever needed to pick up other passengers.

The number and size of the parking buildings (drawn in this case in undisguised functionalist manner) is based on the assumption that 10 percent of workers would use private vehicles, while non-commuters would use 70 percent. It could be both possible and desirable to use existing streets to distribute and collect passengers, or some combination of surface and below ground facilities.

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