What happens when self-driving cars arrive?

A recent article in Forbes Magazine, and many other sources, predict that self-driving vehicles will be commonplace by 2020, with enormous ramifications for our city transportation systems. As a result, the number of cars on our city streets will drop dramatically.

Why own a car at about $10,000 per year, when for one-tenth that price you can use a phone app to have a driverless vehicle at your house within minutes, sharing rides with others in your neighbourhood who want to go to a similar location? And no parking worries, plus a predicted 90 per cent drop in vehicle accidents!

Which brings us to last Monday’s city council vote to extend the Parkway. Surely this is exactly the wrong time for this decision, when we are on the verge of the biggest revolution in urban transportation since the horse and buggy became a thing of the past. Surely city council can look a very few years into the future and see more productive uses for $80 million? Al Slavin Wallace Point Rd.