Future vehicles missing from Met Council’s transportation plan

James Warden at Finance and Commerce summarizes some discussion of Autonomous Vehicles from Friday's conference, and my comments on streets.mn in Future vehicles missing from Met Council’s transportation plan. [paywall]

Even so, changes like slower growth in the amount of driving are poised to reshape the region’s transportation needs, said David Levinson, a U of M professor and chair in transportation engineering for the university’s Department of Civil Engineering. Data from countries with older populations than the United States’ suggest the country is likely to see demand slow further as baby boomers age.

“We need to be thinking about not that we need to be adding capacity but maintaining what we have and what we need [and] thinking about strategic reductions in our capacity,” Levinson said. “That’s not a conversation that’s going on anywhere.”