Thursday, March 28, 2024
Hawai'i Free Press

Current Articles | Archives

Sunday, July 22, 2012
Driverless Cars: Trading the Future for the Past
By NCPA @ 1:15 PM :: 5393 Views :: Maui County, Education K-12

Driverless Cars: Trading the Future for the Past

by Wendell Cox, NCPA, July 21, 2012

Economist Clifford Winston of the Brookings Institution outlines the surface transportation system of the future in a Wall Street Journal commentary, “Paving the Way for Driverless Cars.” Winston notes that driverless cars are a much better technological solution than high speed rail.
The Obama administration in Washington and the Brown administration in Sacramento claim high speed rail will reduce traffic congestion and air pollution. California’s high speed rail cost escalation and technical appendices from the planning documents for virtually all high speed rail system show that hope to be in the category with the proverbial used-car salesman claims that, today, would attract the attention of a state attorney general.
Like that hanger-on technology, magnetic levitation, high speed rail might well have been able to make a significant mark in US transportation if the airplane had never been invented. If there were no airplanes, high speed rail might even be able to pay for itself. But it is 2012, not 1890 and the airplane is here to stay.
So are cars. Automobiles provide far less expensive transportation that is far more convenient, leaves it leaves you in the garage, not at a station 20 miles away where you have to wait for a bus, find a taxi or rent a car). Besides being available for the trip to Fresno, Cherry Hill or Bloomington-Normal, the car gets people around these places better than anything ever invented.
Mass transit is beyond competition when it comes to getting to work south of 59th Street in New York or the Chicago Loop, but little of America (or anywhere else) looks like that. Mass transit is in the minor leagues compared to the car in terms of its access around the modern urban area. Approximately 85 percent of driver are able to get to work in 45 minutes. In contrast, data from the Brookings Institution indicates that the average metropolitan area resident is within only six percent of jobs in 45 minutes by mass transit. As a result, spending tax money to attract people out of their cars to mass transit has about as much hope for success as trying to get people to replace their modern refrigerators with mid-19th century ice-boxes.
In the final analysis, attempts to restore an over-romanticized past or to lure people into accepting greater inconvenience despite having better and less expensive options is futile. That’s why the driverless car makes so much sense.
Already Google has conducted experiments with the automated car that have been so successful that they are now permitted in Nevada. Winston suggests that by automating cars, it will be necessary to separate automobile traffic from truck traffic, which will make it possible to provide additional traffic lanes within the existing road footprint. Non-automated cars and trucks would continue to operate in conventional, wider lanes on the same right-of-way. Another advantage would be that with the automated control, more cars could be accommodated in each lane. The need for highway expansion would be largely displaced by substantially improving capacity by upgrading highways with 21st century technology.
Winston has been a critic of overly expensive urban rail systems and transit subsidies. Driverless cars were also the subject of a Wall Street Journal commentary by Randal O’Toole in 2010.
Links

TEXT "follow HawaiiFreePress" to 40404

Register to Vote

2aHawaii

808 Silent Majority

Aloha Pregnancy Care Center

AntiPlanner

Antonio Gramsci Reading List

A Place for Women in Waipio

Ballotpedia Hawaii

Broken Trust

Build More Hawaiian Homes Working Group

Christian Homeschoolers of Hawaii

Cliff Slater's Second Opinion

DVids Hawaii

FIRE

Fix Oahu!

Frontline: The Fixers

Genetic Literacy Project

Grassroot Institute

Habele.org

Hawaii Aquarium Fish Report

Hawaii Aviation Preservation Society

Hawaii Catholic TV

Hawaii Christian Coalition

Hawaii Cigar Association

Hawaii ConCon Info

Hawaii Debt Clock

Hawaii Defense Foundation

Hawaii Family Forum

Hawaii Farmers and Ranchers United

Hawaii Farmer's Daughter

Hawaii Federalist Society

Hawaii Federation of Republican Women

Hawaii History Blog

Hawaii Homeschool Association

Hawaii Jihadi Trial

Hawaii Legal News

Hawaii Legal Short-Term Rental Alliance

Hawaii Matters

Hawaii's Partnership for Appropriate & Compassionate Care

Hawaii Public Charter School Network

Hawaii Rifle Association

Hawaii Shippers Council

Hawaii Smokers Alliance

Hawaii State Data Lab

Hawaii Together

HIEC.Coop

HiFiCo

Hiram Fong Papers

Homeschool Legal Defense Hawaii

Honolulu Moms for Liberty

Honolulu Navy League

Honolulu Traffic

House Minority Blog

Imua TMT

Inouye-Kwock, NYT 1992

Inside the Nature Conservancy

Inverse Condemnation

Investigative Project on Terrorism

July 4 in Hawaii

Kakaako Cares

Keep Hawaii's Heroes

Land and Power in Hawaii

Legislative Committee Analysis Tool

Lessons in Firearm Education

Lingle Years

Managed Care Matters -- Hawaii

Malama Pregnancy Center of Maui

MentalIllnessPolicy.org

Military Home Educators' Network Oahu

Missile Defense Advocacy

MIS Veterans Hawaii

NAMI Hawaii

Natatorium.org

National Christian Foundation Hawaii

National Parents Org Hawaii

NFIB Hawaii News

No GMO Means No Aloha

Not Dead Yet, Hawaii

NRA-ILA Hawaii

Oahu Alternative Transport

Obookiah

OHA Lies

Opt Out Today

OurFutureHawaii.com

Patients Rights Council Hawaii

PEACE Hawaii

People vs Machine

Practical Policy Institute of Hawaii

Pritchett Cartoons

Pro-GMO Hawaii

P.U.E.O.

RailRipoff.com

Rental by Owner Awareness Assn

ReRoute the Rail

Research Institute for Hawaii USA

Rick Hamada Show

RJ Rummel

Robotics Organizing Committee

School Choice in Hawaii

SenatorFong.com

Sink the Jones Act

Statehood for Guam

Talking Tax

Tax Foundation of Hawaii

The Real Hanabusa

Time Out Honolulu

Trustee Akina KWO Columns

UCC Truths

US Tax Foundation Hawaii Info

VAREP Honolulu

Waagey.org

West Maui Taxpayers Association

What Natalie Thinks

Whole Life Hawaii

Yes2TMT