Los Angeles is It’s a car city, and it’s rarely more obvious than from a vulnerable perch above a bicycle. Among major US cities, LA has the worst reputation – a bad one for cycling. The lack of connected bike lanes and safe crossings led to one National Cycling Advocate organization recently calling LA’s bike network 1,136th in the nation. The city’s auto addiction is written into its infrastructure – with deadly consequences. According to one local report, at least one Angeloses died while riding this year.
So it’s no surprise that Eli Akira Kaufman, Executive Director of La County Cycling Advocacy Group Bikala, is so excited about the car. Specifically, a car driven by a robot.
For more than a year now, the alphabet sponsored by Woodmo has been picking up passengers in the western part of the city. Kaufman likes what he sees. He says: “Drivers are stressed, tired, bewearted,” he said. You get WayMos Pilot by guessing, especially sticking to the traffic rules. When he rides, “I let them down in terms of my anxiety level. I can focus on the human drivers.”
Kaufman’s sentiments represent the change of the circulating society, and something like formation. For years, some cyclists have viewed the efforts of Heach Vehicle Tech developers – and the automakers that support them – with deep suspicion. Self-driving cars are, after all, cars, heavy and dangerous; More than 40,000 Americans die in traffic accidents each year. In addition, if autonomous vehicles effectively replace today’s cars and trucks, advocates worry that other modes of transportation are losing out. The long-term result of the doubling in auto travel is likely to be cities that have fewer opportunities for more expensive, illegal means of transportation. Exactly, one could argue, the kind of cities that exist today.
But as more and more self-driving car services pop up around the country, they’ve touted a safety record that, while far from real, appears to be improving on human performance. Waymo’s latest data suggests that, in cities where it operates, its vehicles are involved in 92 fewer crashes that injure pedestrians, and fewer crashes that injure bicycles.
This led some Bricklings to take a high tech approach. “I don’t think anyone, including autonomous car operators, think that moving drivers out of the equation will solve the problem of bikehouston. Waymo started testing in Houston in May, and the Texas city has seen tests from companies including Nuro and Cruise. “But we need to be open-minded about solutions that can bring results quickly.”
As most of the new technologies come out of the city streets, activists ask the question that drives the wheels without wheels: What should the city of the future look like?
A great relationship
Travel groups say some private car developers have done a lot that other travel companies don’t. Waymo representatives hope that the meetings will close with bike lobbyists. They make appearances at local events. “Companies like Waymo and Zoox were approaching us, asking us about their technology, and asking us to meet with their engineers,” said Meet Their Engineers, a Sacramento-based bicycle executive group.
The private car industry is also writing checks. Waymo sponsored last year’s National Military Conference in Washington DC, an upcoming event hosted by the nonprofit American Bicycle Association, and will sponsor next year’s event. Local groups, including Bikala and Bikehouston, count you among the “partners,” and Zoox has joined name associations and AARP California – as sponsors of Calbike’s AND MOBILE.
