Opinion: NYC can speed the way to safe, inclusive policies for self-driving cars

As New York adapts to the new reality of congestion pricing and awaits the arrival of President-elect Donald Trump’s dictums on transportation, the right policies for self-driving cars can help supply what we need most – safe streets and global economic positioning – while serving our city’s unique needs.

New York City has a great deal at stake in the emergence of self-driving cars, or autonomous vehicles as they are formally known: a densely populated urban environment, a large number of human drivers and a new congestion pricing policy aimed at reducing the use of vehicles in Manhattan. We’ve got to prepare our policy, infrastructure and mindset for these new vehicles right now.

Once autonomous vehicle technology is deemed “safe enough” to operate on city streets, New York can greatly benefit from a shared autonomous vehicle ecosystem. When? Well, that’s a moving target, but soon. Meanwhile, mile-for-mile, research shows self-driving cars navigate more safely than human drivers do. Safety gains can potentially alleviate the pedestrian safety challenges currently afoot on our sidewalks and crosswalks. (Last year, at least 120 pedestrians – on average, 10 each month – were killed on city streets, according to NYC Open Data.) Autonomous vehicles don’t get drunk, take their eyes off the road or develop road rage.

In addition, autonomous vehicles can reduce on-street parking demands by dropping riders at destinations and then moving to off-site parking locations. While seemingly minor, this benefit frees up much-contested land for more productive uses, including dynamic loading zones (to satisfy the 80% of New York households that receive at least one delivery per week), year-round outdoor dining structures and rainwater basins that capture storm water so it does not deluge subway stations or basement apartments.

Furthermore, self-driving vehicles’ electronic communication systems should enable more efficient movement out of the way from emergency vehicles, potentially allowing first responders faster access to critical situations.

To maintain our stance as a globally competitive city, New York must remain at the technological forefront. However, as the largest, densest and most public transit-dependent city in the U.S., we also must structure certain requirements for autonomous vehicle operations. 

We dove into these requirements in our work at New York University’s Rudin Center for Transportation by creating a policy framework for New York with five working groups of experts, policymakers, industry leaders and nonprofit advocates. Among seven principles we identified for New York’s unique needs, several emerged as most urgent:

• Self-driving cars should augment, not replace, human drivers. In New York City, 179,357 people are employed as Taxi and Limousine Commission-licensed professional drivers, including those who operate taxis, paratransit vehicles and commuter vans. Replacing these drivers with automated systems is infeasible – we still need someone to secure wheelchairs – and unconscionable. We simply cannot allow so many New Yorkers to lose employment. Instead, we should use these technologies to augment drivers’ work. For example, New York can require pedestrian detection systems to assist in safe nighttime driving. 
• Shared autonomous vehicles must accommodate New York’s diverse ridership, including the 11.3% of New Yorkers with disabilities. By ensuring that vehicles have space for wheelchairs, can line up evenly with the curb and provide rider information in both video and audio formats, autonomous vehicles can fill a mobility gap that the subway, in most stations, does not yet fill.
• Self-driving vehicles must complement public transportation, not replace it. We can do so by authorizing the use of small-form microtransit vehicles, such as vans and shuttles, to bring New Yorkers to work at job anchor institutions, such as airports and hospitals. In particular, an overnight microtransit system would allow the Metropolitan Transportation Authority to conduct overnight repairs more seamlessly. This system is possible through a shared responsibility between the MTA and the city, as was done for frontline workers in 2020.

On a technological basis, fully automated vehicles are not New York-ready. We have the healthiest level of pedestrian traffic in the United States, but a series of jaywalkers could likely hold up traffic for an extended period of time, as autonomous vehicles, unlike human drivers, will patiently wait. 

Our weather variations can confuse existing autonomous vehicle technologies. And unlike other U.S. cities, we have a robust transit system that remains more efficient than vehicle-based travel, regardless of the mode’s intelligence.

This week, the U.S. Senate held a confirmation hearing for Sean Duffy, the former Wisconsin congressman and recent Fox Business cohost whom Trump has picked to be the next U.S. Secretary of Transportation. Once confirmed, Duffy will likely be tasked with developing a federal framework for the testing and adoption of autonomous vehicles, easing their entry into American cities with lax rules. A private industry-forward policy approach to mobility is expected from a new administration bent on free-market deployment of all things, including self-driving cars. 

Since the 1960s, America’s transportation plans have prioritized suburban car commuters. It’s time to harness the opportunity to get urban transportation right and highlight the needs of underserved, underrepresented people from the start.