{"id":175273,"date":"2019-09-05T13:01:46","date_gmt":"2019-09-05T13:01:46","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.welovecycling.com\/wide\/?p=175273"},"modified":"2019-09-05T13:10:27","modified_gmt":"2019-09-05T13:10:27","slug":"will-self-driving-cars-be-good-for-road-cycling","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.welovecycling.com\/wide\/2019\/09\/05\/will-self-driving-cars-be-good-for-road-cycling\/","title":{"rendered":"Will Self-Driving Cars Be Good for Road Cycling?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Self-driving cars are something we will most likely experience as the norm on the roads within our lifetime. What are the advantages and disadvantages of autonomous vehicles with regard to road cycling? Let\u2019s take an imaginary trip to the future when self-driving cars are a big part of traffic to see what it could be like.<\/strong>
\n<\/p>\n

Are they safe?<\/strong><\/h2>\n

Self-driving cars are gradually sneaking their way into our road systems. They are fully legal in some American states, many European countries including Germany, France, UK, and the Netherlands are implementing laws to regulate such vehicles, and China has been issuing self-driving licences since 2018. For cyclists riding on open roads in a predictable way, it seems like self-driving cars might perhaps not a big danger. But as it stands, inexperienced cyclists and kids who move less predictably, especially in a city setting, are still not something the auto-pilot can handle safely and reliably.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Advantages of self-driving cars<\/strong><\/h2>\n

Let\u2019s imagine the future, perhaps the year 2030 when autonomous self-driving cars regularly mix with pedestrians and cyclists and human drivers are the exception rather than the rule. The self-driving hardware and software are better than anything we have now. What advantages could cars like that bring to road cycling?<\/p>\n

\u2022 No more texting while driving<\/strong> \u2013 We can assume that Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, or some other social media will distract people in cars even more effectively in 2030 than today. But with cars driving themselves, this will no longer be an issue.
\n\u2022 Safer infrastructure<\/strong> \u2013 Self-driving cars benefit from physical objects along the road for navigation. This will be a great opportunity for cyclists as concrete separators and bike lanes demarcating bike paths would now become beneficial to both cycling and driving.
\n\u2022 More and better eyes on the road<\/strong> \u2013 Self-driving cars have 360\u00b0 vision and they can use a combo of cameras, light detection and ranging, and radar to be constantly aware of their surroundings. They don\u2019t have to scan back and forth like a human, they don\u2019t get distracted, and they don\u2019t blink.
\n\u2022 No more misjudging a cyclist\u2019s speed<\/strong> \u2013 Self-driving cars won\u2019t misjudge speed. They will have hardware and software that will tell them the exact numbers.
\n\u2022 More disciplined drivers<\/strong> \u2013 Self-driving cars will be programmed to adjust their behaviour based on the weather and the surrounding area. No more late breaking and excessive speeds.
\n\u2022 No more angry drivers<\/strong> \u2013 Self-driving cars won\u2019t have bad days, and won\u2019t get frustrated.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Downsides of self-driving cars<\/strong><\/h2>\n

So far, it seems like the year 2030 will be a pretty great year for road cycling, safety will go way up, and it might even be a more emotionally pleasant experience to ride a bike in traffic. It\u2019s not all roses, though. Let\u2019s think of the downsides for a minute now.<\/p>\n

\u2022 Worse traffic jams<\/strong> \u2013 With self-driving cars, the number of vehicles on the road will no longer be restricted by the number of people available to drive them. Especially trucking and taxi companies will increase the number of cars they run as it will be cheaper to operate them.
\n\u2022 No more human empathy<\/strong> \u2013 Cyclists will often rather crash themselves than knowingly hit another person or animal in their way. The same can be said for human car drivers. With self-driving cars, it all comes down to programming. Every culture has a different value system so who knows where will cyclists rank in the priority list in a crisis.<\/p>\n

What\u2019s the verdict?<\/strong><\/h2>\n

We may have to wait even longer than 2030 to have the infrastructure, hardware, and software ready to truly make cyclists safer on the roads. But with an increasing demand for electric bikes, electric cars, and self-driving in general, the motivation is here to make it happen. The transition will not be easy but the future is bright for road cycling.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Self-driving cars are something we will most likely experience as the norm on the roads within our lifetime. What are […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":12,"featured_media":175276,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[329,335],"tags":[3482,2347,3483],"global-categories":[],"class_list":["post-175273","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-road-cycling","category-safety","tag-autonomous-vehicles","tag-future-mobility","tag-future-of-cycling"],"yoast_head":"\nWill Self-Driving Cars Be Good for Road Cycling? - \u0160koda We Love Cycling<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Self-driving cars are something we will most likely experience as the norm on the roads within our lifetime. What are the advantages and disadvantages of\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.welovecycling.com\/wide\/2019\/09\/05\/will-self-driving-cars-be-good-for-road-cycling\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Will Self-Driving Cars Be Good for Road Cycling?\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Self-driving cars are something we will most likely experience as the norm on the roads within our lifetime. What are the advantages and disadvantages of\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.welovecycling.com\/wide\/2019\/09\/05\/will-self-driving-cars-be-good-for-road-cycling\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"\u0160koda We Love Cycling\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2019-09-05T13:01:46+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2019-09-05T13:10:27+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/d2p6e6u75xmxt8.cloudfront.net\/2\/2019\/09\/Vision-E-CVR.webp\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"900\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"600\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/webp\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Jiri Kaloc\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"5\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.welovecycling.com\/wide\/2019\/09\/05\/will-self-driving-cars-be-good-for-road-cycling\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.welovecycling.com\/wide\/2019\/09\/05\/will-self-driving-cars-be-good-for-road-cycling\/\",\"name\":\"Will Self-Driving Cars Be Good for Road Cycling? - \u0160koda We Love Cycling\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.welovecycling.com\/wide\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.welovecycling.com\/wide\/2019\/09\/05\/will-self-driving-cars-be-good-for-road-cycling\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.welovecycling.com\/wide\/2019\/09\/05\/will-self-driving-cars-be-good-for-road-cycling\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/d2p6e6u75xmxt8.cloudfront.net\/2\/2019\/09\/Vision-E-CVR.webp\",\"datePublished\":\"2019-09-05T13:01:46+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2019-09-05T13:10:27+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"\"},\"description\":\"Self-driving cars are something we will most likely experience as the norm on the roads within our lifetime. What are the advantages and disadvantages of\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.welovecycling.com\/wide\/2019\/09\/05\/will-self-driving-cars-be-good-for-road-cycling\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.welovecycling.com\/wide\/2019\/09\/05\/will-self-driving-cars-be-good-for-road-cycling\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.welovecycling.com\/wide\/2019\/09\/05\/will-self-driving-cars-be-good-for-road-cycling\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/d2p6e6u75xmxt8.cloudfront.net\/2\/2019\/09\/Vision-E-CVR.webp\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/d2p6e6u75xmxt8.cloudfront.net\/2\/2019\/09\/Vision-E-CVR.webp\",\"width\":900,\"height\":600},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.welovecycling.com\/wide\/2019\/09\/05\/will-self-driving-cars-be-good-for-road-cycling\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.welovecycling.com\/wide\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Will Self-Driving Cars Be Good for Road Cycling?\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.welovecycling.com\/wide\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.welovecycling.com\/wide\/\",\"name\":\"\u0160koda We Love Cycling\",\"description\":\"\u0160koda We Love Cycling magazine\",\"alternateName\":\"\u0160koda WLC\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.welovecycling.com\/wide\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.welovecycling.com\/wide\/author\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO Premium plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Will Self-Driving Cars Be Good for Road Cycling? - \u0160koda We Love Cycling","description":"Self-driving cars are something we will most likely experience as the norm on the roads within our lifetime. What are the advantages and disadvantages of","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.welovecycling.com\/wide\/2019\/09\/05\/will-self-driving-cars-be-good-for-road-cycling\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Will Self-Driving Cars Be Good for Road Cycling?","og_description":"Self-driving cars are something we will most likely experience as the norm on the roads within our lifetime. What are the advantages and disadvantages of","og_url":"https:\/\/www.welovecycling.com\/wide\/2019\/09\/05\/will-self-driving-cars-be-good-for-road-cycling\/","og_site_name":"\u0160koda We Love Cycling","article_published_time":"2019-09-05T13:01:46+00:00","article_modified_time":"2019-09-05T13:10:27+00:00","og_image":[{"width":900,"height":600,"url":"https:\/\/d2p6e6u75xmxt8.cloudfront.net\/2\/2019\/09\/Vision-E-CVR.webp","type":"image\/webp"}],"twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Jiri Kaloc","Est. reading time":"5"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.welovecycling.com\/wide\/2019\/09\/05\/will-self-driving-cars-be-good-for-road-cycling\/","url":"https:\/\/www.welovecycling.com\/wide\/2019\/09\/05\/will-self-driving-cars-be-good-for-road-cycling\/","name":"Will Self-Driving Cars Be Good for Road Cycling? - \u0160koda We Love Cycling","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.welovecycling.com\/wide\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.welovecycling.com\/wide\/2019\/09\/05\/will-self-driving-cars-be-good-for-road-cycling\/#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.welovecycling.com\/wide\/2019\/09\/05\/will-self-driving-cars-be-good-for-road-cycling\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/d2p6e6u75xmxt8.cloudfront.net\/2\/2019\/09\/Vision-E-CVR.webp","datePublished":"2019-09-05T13:01:46+00:00","dateModified":"2019-09-05T13:10:27+00:00","author":{"@id":""},"description":"Self-driving cars are something we will most likely experience as the norm on the roads within our lifetime. What are the advantages and disadvantages of","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.welovecycling.com\/wide\/2019\/09\/05\/will-self-driving-cars-be-good-for-road-cycling\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.welovecycling.com\/wide\/2019\/09\/05\/will-self-driving-cars-be-good-for-road-cycling\/"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.welovecycling.com\/wide\/2019\/09\/05\/will-self-driving-cars-be-good-for-road-cycling\/#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/d2p6e6u75xmxt8.cloudfront.net\/2\/2019\/09\/Vision-E-CVR.webp","contentUrl":"https:\/\/d2p6e6u75xmxt8.cloudfront.net\/2\/2019\/09\/Vision-E-CVR.webp","width":900,"height":600},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.welovecycling.com\/wide\/2019\/09\/05\/will-self-driving-cars-be-good-for-road-cycling\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.welovecycling.com\/wide\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Will Self-Driving Cars Be Good for Road Cycling?"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.welovecycling.com\/wide\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.welovecycling.com\/wide\/","name":"\u0160koda We Love Cycling","description":"\u0160koda We Love Cycling magazine","alternateName":"\u0160koda WLC","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.welovecycling.com\/wide\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"","url":"https:\/\/www.welovecycling.com\/wide\/author\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.welovecycling.com\/wide\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/175273","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.welovecycling.com\/wide\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.welovecycling.com\/wide\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.welovecycling.com\/wide\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/12"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.welovecycling.com\/wide\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=175273"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.welovecycling.com\/wide\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/175273\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":175286,"href":"https:\/\/www.welovecycling.com\/wide\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/175273\/revisions\/175286"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.welovecycling.com\/wide\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/175276"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.welovecycling.com\/wide\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=175273"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.welovecycling.com\/wide\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=175273"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.welovecycling.com\/wide\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=175273"},{"taxonomy":"global-categories","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.welovecycling.com\/wide\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/global-categories?post=175273"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}