HUB Cycling Position: Autonomous Vehicles

Similar to ride-hailing, the environmental impact of autonomous vehicles depends on how well they are regulated. Autonomous vehicles pose additional safety concerns, which also must be carefully regulated.

With environmental and safety concerns in mind, HUB Cycling’s position on autonomous vehicles is that they should be carefully regulated in accordance with the same three objectives:

• Better incentivize the use of active and public transportation (for example, autonomous vehicles may be programmed in a manner that limits car speed to 30 km/h on local streets with no centre line, reduces speed in proximity to people cycling, prevents dooring and allows for converting on-street parking spaces to protected bike lanes);
• Reduce the number of cars on the road (by, for example, focusing on encouraging single- occupancy drivers to move to multiple-occupancy autonomous vehicles); and
• Reduce the GHG emissions of overall vehicles on the road (by, for example, requiring all autonomous vehicles to be electric).

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Last updated May 2019
Is there a particular issue you’d like to see us take a position on? Email us at action@bikehub.ca