The automobile has shaped a lot of design since it’s introduction into the world. One big influence of automobiles is found in the design and development of major municipalities. Think about cities today with their highways, streets, spaces dedicated to parking and more. With self-driving cars set to disrupt transportation, cities must prepare for autonomous technology and how it will affect the lives of city dwellers. That’s exactly what former New York mayor and billionaire philanthropist Michael Bloomberg wants to do. “No tech has shaped cities more than cars in the last 100 years,” Bloomberg said via Twitter. “It’s time for cities to turn the focus to self-driving vehicles.”
Bloomberg Philanthropies and the Aspen Institute announced a new program this week titled the Bloomberg Aspen Initiative on Cities and Autonomous Vehicles to help with such a process. The goal of the initiative is to “galvanize experts and data to accelerate cities’ planning efforts, and produce a set of principles and tools that participating cities, as well as cities around the world, can use to chart their own paths forward.” Austin, Los Angeles, Nashville, Paris and Buenos Aires are the first cities to be included in the initiative with five more cities set to be named later this year. “The advent of autonomous cars is one of the most exciting developments ever to happen to cities. And if mayors collaborate with one another, and with partners in the private sector, they can improve people’s lives in ways we can only imagine today.”
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