Will Self-Driving Cars, Taxis Make Mass Transit Obsolete?

The Salt Lake Tribune covers Marc Scribner’s testimony before the Transportation Governance and Funding Task Force in Utah.

Utah officials have long planned billions of dollars more of mass transit in coming years — saying it’s the best way to handle expected rapid growth in crowded valleys where not many more freeways are possible, and that it could cut pollution.

But a task force planning Utah’s future transportation heard a contrary opinion Wednesday — arguing against more TRAX, FrontRunner or streetcars because self-driving, Uber-style shared taxis may make rail transit obsolete.

“I think automated vehicles sometime in the future will be what you may call a transit killer in all but the densest urban cores,” testified Marc Scribner, senior fellow at the Competitive Enterprise Institute, a Washington, D.C., think tank that promotes limited government and free enterprise.

Read the full article at the Salt Lake Tribune.