Recent controversy surrounding Peter Wayner’s think-piece on turning subway tunnels into highways for autonomous vehicles should have been an opportunity to advocate for surface transit rights-of-way. The uncertainty surrounding the hours and longevity of the Williamsburg bridge HOV lanes illustrates the ongoing difficulties faced in claiming surface rights-of-way for a new Second System! CityLab and others crafted serious rebuttals to Wayner and Twitter exploded with parody. They blew it.

HOV/Bus lanes ought to blanket the city, likely a necessary preparation for autonomous transit but also immediately useful for CURRENT TECHNOLOGY. A mix of public and private services, see this blog’s Chariot SBS post, could be deployed via usage rules or licensing schemes – ironically similar to the “open marketplace” Wayner imagines underground.

This is not to preclude using existing or new tunnels for autonomous transit, something that should be taken seriously in light of Elon Musk’s proposal for LA and recent inroads in Chicago. So what if our subways are not the right testing ground for this stuff? We should begin the conversation and we ought to be on the lookout for opportunities to incrimentally test and prove similar technologies. Our first opportunity is likely to be on the surface.