TORONTO—Fewer parking lots sprawling the length of football fields, more green space, and a reshaped vision of public transit.
Those are just a few of the ways driverless cars could lay the groundwork for widespread changes in how cities are designed, according to a group of Canadian architects and urban planners.
“There’s going to be a lot of land that’s freed up,” suggested Gianpiero Pugliese, principal architect at Audax Architecture, which designs commercial and residential buildings.
“As a community we will have the opportunity to decide how that’s used.”
“Driverless City,” a panel discussion held Nov. 3 by the Urban Land Institute of Toronto, offered a rare opportunity for architects involved in projects across the country to debate how the fast-evolving technology will impact urban centres and their surrounding suburbs.
By far, the biggest focus was on how parking lots and massive garages could start to vanish.
While self-driving vehicles are still in testing stages, there are prototypes from automakers and technology companies already on public roads. It’s widely expected that within less than 10 years driverless cars—or autonomous vehicles as they’re known within the industry—will be making their way into the average consumer’s garage.
