(On Tech)
Almost as soon as technologists invented robots to transport groceries or burritos to people’s doorsteps, discussions regarding sidewalks began.
Officials in San Francisco, which is a testing ground for many new technologies, were concerned that interactions with robots might affect the elderly, children or people with disabilities. Nearly a year ago, Pennsylvania lifted restrictions in each of its cities and gave delivery robots, which look like beer coolers on wheels on sidewalks, the same rights enjoyed by pedestrians. Officials in Kirkland, Washington recently suspended permits for Amazon’s experimental package delivery robots and are now asking whether the company should pay fees for the use of curb space.
It may seem ridiculous to devote mind space and government attention to robotic couriers, which may never be feasible outside of confined environments like college campuses or urban centers. And go ahead, frown on left-leaning cities like San Francisco that seem obsessed with rules.
But these robot battles are a microcosm of big questions regarding technology and modern life. How do we share public spaces, such as streets and sidewalks, and who is responsible for the inevitable damage that occurs as our communities change, including security threats, wear and tear on streets and sidewalks, congestion, and pollution?
Versions of these questions arose during the heyday of e-commerce product deliveries, appearing whenever establishments mark off space for outdoor dining, when it comes to biking, walking, or using ride-hailing services like Uber. , or buses, autonomous vehicles, electric scooters or flying taxis. All of these issues are edges of the same dispute over who, and who cannot, can occupy our shared spaces, and who deserves a more or less limited resource.
“For 100 years, we’ve had all kinds of things on our highways, streets and sidewalks that we don’t quite know what to do with,” said Bryant Walker Smith, a professor at the University of South Carolina School of Law who studies emerging transportation systems. There was a time, he pointed out, when automobiles were the controversial new intruders on the roads.
Smith recognized that there was no simple answer to who and what may occupy our streets and sidewalks.
Not allowing public space to evolve is counterproductive. We may be missing out on useful changes to our cities or better ways to transport people and goods. But it might also be destructive to allow everyone to have free access to spaces, like the delivery trucks that circulate through the neighborhoods, or the golf carts that cruise the highways, or the seas of cars and motorcycles that clog every street. .
Smith said it was appropriate for communities to make their own decisions regarding robots on sidewalks, bike lanes or ride-hailing services, even if it’s inelegant to lack a universal model for how to manage these things. Smith explained that universities, which until now have been the hotbed of robotic couriers, had the authority to set rules such as speed and weight limits, and hold courier companies to their promises.
Officials and all of us need to ask ourselves what we want for our communities, he added, and then figure out how we want public space to contribute to those goals. That means thinking holistically regarding the uses of streets and sidewalks, without treating robotic couriers, electric scooters, private cars or UPS trucks as discreet modes of transportation.
Above all, Smith said, people and policymakers should not only contemplate what to do with new forms of transportation, but also be willing to rethink the status quo in which cars and trucks are the dominant users of public space and everything and everyone else must compete for the margins of streets and sidewalks.
Given the high costs that vehicles impose on communities, such as traffic congestion, road deaths, their effects on climate change, and demands on physical space, Smith said we may need to be more creative in time to make room for everything other than cars. “Let’s encourage diversity and see what happens,” he said.
This is going to be complicated and contentious, but as Smith said, this is how change works.
