Cities are a marvel of human invention and innovation, and with the rapid adoption of autonomous vehicles, cities are likely to both drive and reflect this change.
Take for instance New York City, a place that is home to over eight million people crowded within 304 square miles and roughly 120,000 vehicles. Autonomous vehicles are expected to reduce household ownership of cars or eliminate them entirely, leaving the more than 6,000 miles worth of road in the city a little bit emptier.
That’s where architecture and engineering firm Edg comes in. The company created a video proposal called “Loop NYC,” that features a driverless transit plan that would free up nearly all of Broadway and Park Avenue for park space, reclaiming 24 miles of street to be used as uninterrupted walking paths and bike lanes.
Details for such a change include making one lane in each direction of the FDR and West Side Highway reserved for autonomous vehicles, and so would major cross streets, like 14th, 23rd, 34th, 57th, and 86th. The concept also calls for building pedestrian overpasses on these streets so that people and cars are separate, reducing the potential for collisions and turning existing boulevards in the city into linear parks where bikes and pedestrians can freely move.
Check out the video below to marvel at what could be: