If you are involved in managing a growing community at the highest level, you may plan how people go about their business on a daily basis as they move between residential communities and urban centres of commerce. You may be fighting a constant battle for public space, as you only have a certain amount of room to play with as you juggle the needs of big business with the individual. Transportation is certainly at the centre of your challenge, and this is only likely to become more difficult as current and emerging technology find its way into the mix. How can you make sure that your developing community can cope with the imminent arrival of the semiautonomous and driverless car?

Dealing with the Transition

Many futurists tout the autonomous revolution as being the ultimate answer to transportation and as a way to cut down on the number of fatalities encountered along Australian roads each year. They say that the movement of people and goods will be far more efficient and will cost a lot less, leading to exponential gains through every facet of life. It's not hard to agree with them when you picture such a scenario in the far future, but the challenge for town planners will surely lie in the transition period between now and then.

Side-By-Side

During this time, the new technology will have to coexist with traditional forms of transportation and may, in fact, require an expansion of the transportation footprint in order to accommodate. This will require a significant process of education to make sure that road users and bicyclists do not become blasé about this 'totally safe' technology, causing more problems than there were before.

Increased Mass Transit

It's likely that these new developments will lead to an increased demand for public transportation or mass-transit, rather than the individual transportation epitomised by the car owner of today. This will require segregation to an extent, and in the interim, it might require separate roads or pathways that may run side-by-side to various destinations.

The Planning Revolution

Certainly, the town planner of the future may be able to avoid the need for sprawling, multi-storey car parks, and this philosophy may even spread to local neighbourhoods where a two-car garage could be a thing of the past. This may call for a complete revolution in the planning process, but in the meantime, it's important to address how everything will work together in concert.

Time to Focus

Every community needs to be aware of these developments and understand that the path towards autonomy is accelerating. Town planning will become much more challenging in the near future as a consequence.