Roadless cities: The future of transit and urban living

Revolutionizing how we travel, allowing the liberation roads and an overhaul of city life.

Many cities around the world are facing a massive transportation problem: infrastructure is outdated, traffic keeps getting worse, and the potential to improve is bleak.

Cities are stuck in the past and are too resistant to change. For decades we have relied on ancient road systems for the majority of transportation needs, but now that cities are established, there is limited space to expand. For new roads to be constructed, buildings would have to be purchased and ripped down, while also forcing traffic delays that hurt the already fragile system.

Ultimately, cities can not afford for roads to be the future of transportation. In some cities, 40% of the total area already consists of roads. As cities look to optimize their land utility, there is no capacity to expand road networks.

Instead of relying on a rigid, ineffective system, leading-edge transportation technologies can ignite the transition away from roads, speeding up travel times and liberating immensely valuable land, all with minimal disruptions.

Leveraging Underutilized Spaces

While roads require high-demand real-estate, many future transportation systems actually work above and below ground, minimizing their footprint on land. Furthermore, they don’t disrupt traffic while being built either!

Underground Tunnels

While the concept of tunnel boring to navigate around roads is not a new concept, the immense cost and duration of projects greatly limits their wide-spread implementation. Costing over $1 billion per mile of tunnel, with speeds 17 times slower than a snail, modern capabilities are not adequate for future demands.

Leading the charge in this industry is Elon Musk and The Boring Company. Overhauling the tunnel boring industry, Musk aims to decrease the cost of projects 10-fold, and decrease project timelines significantly as well.

In my article The Boring Company: The Snail-Paced Tunneling Frontier, I describe the advancements Musk is making, reimagining the entire boring process. For example, by opting to dig smaller, single lane tunnels, the machine has less earth to interact with, increasing movement speeds.

Rather than directing trains and subways through these tunnels, cars equipped with autonomous capabilities can safely navigate at high speeds. With expansive networks of underground tunnel systems, passengers can easily navigate beneath cities, quickly and safely reaching their destination.

Autonomous Drone Networks

Leveraging airspace is another revolutionary opportunity to transition away from road dependance, and take traffic off the ground. While airplanes have dominated high-altitude airspaces for decades, the remaining low and mid-altitude airspaces have remained untouched.

To capitalize on this potential, drones have been the primary form of transportation in these airspaces. While the utility, safety, and demand for drones continues to increase, there is one limiting factor that prevents the large-scale implementation of drones: flight path frameworks.

Due to a lack of airway infrastructure, drone pilots can only operate one vehicle at a time, under very strict height, speed, and distance regulations. In order to truly launch a scalable drone infrastructure, both a formal airway system and autonomous capabilities must be implemented. In my article Roadways… in the Sky? I further discuss the advancements in these areas.

As drone capabilities continue to advance, their potential is unlimited. From mail deliveries to cross-city human travel, the sky is the limit for how drones can be used in the future of our cities.

Multi-layered Transportation Network

The greatest advantages of using underutilized spaces (e.g. below ground or in the air) for transportation is the fact that they are not fixed to one plane. While roads can only grow by expanding out, drone networks and tunnel systems can have practically endless layers in height, dramatically increasing the density of transit avenues, all while not interfering with the ground.

This reality also means that the infrastructure can grow and adapt with the city. The potential to expand is ever so present, and is abundantly sustainable. Overall, these technologies can seamlessly transition cities off of roads and liberate the valuable land to everyone.

The best part: the cost to implement these systems would be offset by the land value of the liberated roads. Cities can opt to sell the parcels of unused road, sometimes upwards of 40% their total area, and raise money that way.

Profound Impact on Cities

With the liberation of land within cities, an array of opportunities arise, all of which can massively improve the quality of life for residents.

Putting the Jungle Back in Concrete Jungle

Due to the high value of land caused by extreme scarcity in most major cities, spaces are not commonly turned into parks. Cities such as Houston and Washington have parks fill only 2.6% and 5.0% of their total area respectively.

As publicly owned spaces, cities can use their discretion on how to allocate newly liberated road area, part of which can be used to revitalize parks and green-spaces. Cities can easily double, triple, or 10x their park space with so much free space.

Fostering Community and Curbing Isolation

Beyond traffic congestion, resident isolation and loneliness is another prominent issue cities are facing. One of the greatest contributors is the lack of communal space for residents to organically interact.

With cars off the roads, street life will have an entirely new meaning. Markets, musical performances, and art installations can now fill the dull corridors between buildings, rejuvenating city life. Residents will have places get out, meet people organically, and enjoy experiences otherwise not possible.

Overall, the future of transportation impacts more than just the daily commute to work - it changes the meaning of living in a city. By uploading our transit needs off roads, we can simultaneously create more effective and versatile transportation, while also redefining city life.