Waymo says expecting driverless taxis to stay out of bike lanes is unrealistic

Re:Waymo says expecting driverless taxis to stay out of bike... by seanmcdirmid on Monday April 27, 2026 @12:47AM (#47917795)

This is pretty idealistic. What winds up happening around me is the amazon guy parks their car in the middle of the road AND also has a cart to hit multiple houses at the same time in that region. Furniture deliveries or even moving trucks can block our street for 30 minutes at a time. It is almost as bad as garbage day (ya, you aren't getting through our street on Tuesday morning if you time it wrong).

This would all be solved if we just had delivery parking spaces and got rid of on street parking for everyone else. Really, just that part is just where everything falls apart quickly. This is why traffic seems so much better in Europe (at least where I've lived, like in Switzerland), deliveries work, cars are not parked on the street except at a few very expensive parking spaces.

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Re:Waymo says expecting driverless taxis to stay out of bike... by gpm on Monday April 27, 2026 @01:05AM (#47917878)

I was basically describing how most deliveries happen where I live. Not all, and we could do with forcing the remainder to less disruptive means, but the significant majority.

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Re:Waymo says expecting driverless taxis to stay out of bike... by fc417fc802 on Monday April 27, 2026 @06:54PM (#47928415)

> if we just had delivery parking spaces and got rid of on street parking for everyone else.

The complaint I keep seeing is one of public subsidy. So you're suggesting we subsidize deliveries but not general parking? (To be clear I think it's all just anti-car absurdity.)

Of course merely repurposing a few spots to "commercial deliveries only" every few blocks would probably work. I've seen that done in a few places. I think it comes down to a planning and administration failure.

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Re:Waymo says expecting driverless taxis to stay out of bike... by seanmcdirmid on Monday April 27, 2026 @11:07PM (#47930067)

I am claiming we should subsidize short term drop off/pick up use of limited street front space (not just deliveries, but ride share/taxi pickup/dropoff also) rather than waste it on someone parking their car for 72 hours because they can't be bothered to pay for a parking space.

But ya, if you want to roll back car use, you can do that fastest by restricting free parking. Your community better be prepared for that with adequate public transit investments. Better to just roll back free parking slowly while ramping up public transit investments, but America always messes it up one way or the other.

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