Some US Cities Imagining Driverless Future

I'm wishing there was not so much driverless news. It keeps me from other obsessions, like baking bread and watching tiny house shows and videos. Oh and reading. Really, with people visiting soon, I have a ton of bread to bake. Thinking rye, spelt, and whole wheat. And that's before I start another round of cinnamon raisin challahs.

After a few days with transportation geeks, I am dividing the world into the two types of transportation professionals below. Okay, I mean shared use and transit professionals, not any kind of transportation professional.

1. Those who think driverless is coming soon and will be a revolution in transportation.

2. Those who are concentrating on the transportation world as it is and don't believe driverless will be coming for another 10 to 20 years. Basically, they are attempting to be nice by not saying outright that they really think driverless is irrelevant.

Adding places to category #1

Yes, there are the usual suspects of states that want driverless production and testing in their states. But I'm talking about places that are reimagining use of the roadway and what driverless will mean for life in their cities and states.

New York, New York, it's a hell of a town

The Manhattan borough president recently convened a panel to discuss this topic. FYI - The City of New York is divided into five boroughs. Manhattan and Brooklyn are two of them. The panel addressed the different possible scenarios that might unfold with driverless vehicles.

[Side note: Lyrics: New York, New York, it's a hell of a town; the Bronx is up and the Battery's down; the people ride in a hole in the ground ... I tried to find the lyrics online, but all I discovered were videos with the Frank Sinatra, Gene Kelly movie version and what I have below, which is from the current Broadway show that went on site to locales in the city. They show Bethesda Fountain, different parts of Central Park, Nathans in Coney Island, and lots more.]

Chicago is my kind of town - NOT a driverless town

To be fair to the Second City, despite its inferior pizza and its frigid cold winters, the place is good about being in the forefront. Not on driverless, at least not one local politician. A particular alderman wants to ban driverless vehicles and fine any that show up in the Windy City. This puts the local pol against the state government, which wants to encourage driverless investment in the state. [Video is of the Chicago song, with Sinatra singing.]

According to the article about Chicago, Los Angeles is taking a different route and planning for a largely driverless reality in 2035.

No song for Utah

It may be there are songs about Utah, I just don't know them. I could have done Oklahoma.

But Utah has a driverless transit bus at a university. That's Utah State University and the driverless bus has intriguing wireless charging capabilities. I do not know if and when the bus will be tested with actual passengers on a real route. 

Still, I think Chicago might want to reconsider.