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You've really drunk the kool-aid, haven't you?
Autonomous vehicles will be a disaster for cities, and city authorities should prioritise active travel and public transport primarily, as these are by far the most efficient ways to move people around.
andyp-
Sorry my response didn't include my entire transport policy manifesto.
Of course reducing the number of people using vehicles in cities is the top priority but anyone who thinks that either active travel or public transport will entirely replace travel by personal or hired private transport is nuts. Especially in old cities like London with irregular infrastructure.
Surely you can see that removing the human element from inner city personal transport is a positive?
Soul
That very much depends on what we thing of as a taxi. Right now, they're all the same size - enough for 6 people and some luggage.
Most people are one / maybe two trying to get to a meeting or back home from a night out.
Truly autonomous vehicles could be any size / shape and the majority could be much smaller pods which would reduce congestion and would also be easier to store (park) when not called. Algorithms to reduce the number needed based on demand should also help.
Also, I would imagine a large portion of congestion in large cities is user errors - not moving off quickly from lights, accordion effect of braking in traffic, morons stopping in the wrong place, illegal u-turns etc etc etc. Remove the human element and that all goes away.
This is all best case scenario but removing humans from the mix almost always makes things better.