Quote:
Originally Posted by Westbased
I think we will be seeing a massive reduction in parking in the way of removing parking requirements within the decade. Autonomous vehicles will be making a massive dent and possibly ending car ownership for many. There will not be any need for underground parking because people won't be owning cars. They will pick up their phone and call an "autonomous Uber" or whatever other company is around and go about their day. Further, others will simply hop on public transit to get around although our region will not be built out as it should be within a decade.
The existing underground lots can be used for storage of these vehicles during the night etc. but all the existing parking lots will be developed to create a built environment where people are the priority again, not the car.
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Firstly, all current research points to fully autonomous vehicles being mainstream by no earlier than 2040. That's 22 years from now, a long way to go.
Secondly, cars being fully autonomous, or even partially doesn't have any impact on ownership. I don't quite get why some people think this is the case. People will still own their vehicles, park them at home, and then have them drive them to the mall. The only thing fully autonomous cars will result in is people not physically driving them themselves, and likely lesser road accidents.
But ownership levels won't change. Quite frankly I think it will have the opposite effect. If I can get in a car that drives itself efficiently from A to B without me needing to far around with getting myself to a bus or train station on a transit line that likely doesn't take me directly to where I want t go, I'll opt for owning the car. That's the same reason 90% of households in Metro Vancouver still have at least 1 car.
Honestly, fully autonomous vehicles, especially if they are carbon neutral or non-polluting which is also likely by 2040, I think will actually reduce transit usage.
Time is precious. I drive to work because it takes me 35 minutes one way compared to taking transit which takes 1 hour 15 minutes. I don't give two craps about the environment or social questions, that's over 1 hour per day extra I get with my wife and kids.
Only option is to be smarter with parking garage design. I think more underground or overground stacked parking garages. Also we should be seriously looking at the newer automated parking garages like that have over seas in Japan, Germany, etc. You drive into an elevator, get out, and the system lifts your car and "parks" it almost like a warehouse at Ikea. Makes for far more efficient parking garage designs.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Automated_parking_system
MANY major cities are starting to build these, and we should be no different. They can actually be cheaper to build for underground parking garages aka under high-rise tower developments. Again, Metro-Vancouver needs to seriously get over its anti-car rhetoric. It is hurting urban design far more than it possibly could help.
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