Calgary Herald

Autonomous cars will change cities: experts

- DAVID FRIEND

Fewer parking lots sprawling the length of football fields, more green space and a reshaped vision of public transit.

Those are just a few of the ways driverless cars could lay the groundwork for widespread changes in how cities are designed, according to a group of Canadian architects and urban planners.

Driverless City, a panel discussion held Tuesday by the Urban Land Institute of Toronto, offered a rare opportunit­y for architects involved in projects across the country to debate how the fastevolvi­ng technology will impact urban centres and their suburbs.

By far, the biggest focus was on how parking lots and massive garages could start to vanish.

While self- driving vehicles are still in testing stages, there are prototypes already on public roads. It’s widely expected that within 10 years driverless cars — or autonomous vehicles — will be making their way into the average consumer’s garage. But in a driverless world, people wouldn’t necessaril­y have to stick to old parking habits, the designers suggested. Instead of parking cars at the office, they could be summoned from a more distant parking centre.

Pushing thousands of vehicles away from undergroun­d parking at office buildings could alter the dynamics of modern constructi­on, said Antonio Gomez- Palacio, principal of planning and urban design at Dialog, which has designed a number of cultural and government buildings across the country.

“We can start to think of very different ways of doing things and it’s going to hugely affect the design process.”

But some of those possibilit­ies pose major challenges that could squeeze current infrastruc­ture, particular­ly during rush hour at offices where employees are beckoning driverless cars creating a new form of gridlock.

“I fear to imagine what we’re going to turn drop- offs and pickups ( into),” Gomez- Palacio said. “All of a sudden, every office building at 5 o’clock is going to look like a school zone.”

 ?? EUGENE HOSHIKO/ THE ASSOCIATED PRESS ?? While self- driving vehicles are still in testing stages, prototypes are already on public roads. Once in common use, autonomous cars will offer challenges and opportunit­ies.
EUGENE HOSHIKO/ THE ASSOCIATED PRESS While self- driving vehicles are still in testing stages, prototypes are already on public roads. Once in common use, autonomous cars will offer challenges and opportunit­ies.

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