An urban policy analyst at the Manhattan Institute argues in favor of expanding autonomous ride-hailing in San Francisco and beyond.
In August, the California Public Utilities Commission voted to allow Cruise and Waymo - GM and Alphabet subsidiaries, respectively - to operate autonomous vehicles, or AVs, in San Francisco around the clock. The decision has drawn fire from multiple directions, including from urbanists who decry any policy they deem favorable to automobiles.
One such group, a band of mischief-makers who call themselves Safe Street Rebel, racked up clout on TikTok ahead of the regulatory change by plopping orange traffic cones onto the hoods of AVs trundling about San Francisco, disabling them on the spot. Following the CPUC vote and an uptick in AV-related traffic incidents, San Francisco City Attorney David Chiu joined Safe Street Rebel in spirit, filing a motion to redo the regulatory decision and claiming that the city "will suffer serious harm" as AVs become more prevalent."
Continue reading the entire piece here at Bloomberg CityLab
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Jordan McGillis is a Paulson Policy Analyst at the Manhattan Institute.
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