Can tech kill off cars in cities?

Rent a bike with an app. Order groceries with robot deliveries. Ditch the train for a flying car. Could these future technologies help clean up city transport? Nicole Kobie travels into the future

The average speed for a car travelling across London is 10mph; for buses, it’s closer to 9mph. That’s the same as a horse-drawn carriage in 1908. Why? Traffic. Too many of us drive, and that causes problems for everyone else driving a car — as well as those who suffer the downsides of cars, be it clogged roads holding up bikes and buses, or emissions causing dangerously poor air quality while exacerbating climate change. Policies to reduce car use have become fodder for the tabloids’ culture war — ideas such as modal filtering or LTNs (low-traffic neighbourhoods), road pricing such as London’s congestion zone, and air quality rules like the ULEZ are all deemed battles in the so-called “war against cars”. Setting aside the politics, all of these traffic-control techniques are…

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PC Pro (Digital) - 1 Issue, September 2024

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