The year is 2040 and the driverless car has replaced the motorist. In this scenario, I describe where the car companies write the rules of the road and pretty much have bought our local governments so people are forced to use their services. I using the prices of today as I do not know where inflation is heading. Before reading this story, please read my post "The Driverless Car, an opportunity being missed."
I'm thinking about taking early retirement today since I was unable to make it into work today. I was cycling on Bandera Rd out to my job when a cop decided to pull me over and gave me a ticket for riding my bicycle on a State Owned Highway. Ever since the State of Texas in the last legislative Session, made it illegal to ride your bicycle on State Owned Highways, I had to spend more for my driverless car service. I was hoping just to pay $100 a month to Ford up to 10 rides per month including pick up truck service so I could go out to other cities and visit state parks on the weekend. Now I'm torn between spending $300 a month to get to work and still have the ability to visit state parks and far flung places, and $200 for local services with pick up truck service at a $20 premium per use with a $50 surcharge for out of town use. I like Ford because of their agreement with HEB to use their service free of charge to get to and from their stores.
What's worse, several of my friends just riding their bicycles on Probandt got ticketed after SAPD decided to do a crackdown. I saw post after post in the the Southtown Neighborhood Facebook group about how they were giving tickets to everyone riding a bicycle on Probandt. Bike San Antonio issued a statement condemning the situation. However, the reason why SAPD were able to give out all those tickets is because Probandt is a State Owned Highway. It's still okay to use your bicycle in the inner city for the most part, but slowly that's changing.
Yesterday, city council voted to demolish three historic landmarks including the Alameda theater so the Driverless Car Coalition can use the created empty lots for parking and charging. Two of the speakers that spoke out against the removal of the Alameda Theater laughingly shrugged off my warning that I gave in 2018 about how if we're not careful, these places will be removed to make room for parking lots. As I sat behind them, I openly snarked at them, constantly pointing out how I warned about this vote years before it took place. After a few minutes of my rude behavior, they changed seats, moving to the other side of the Council Chambers. I remained seated waiting for my turn to speak against the proposal.
In my speech before city council, I pointed out how the Driverless Car Coalition, a lobbying group focused on coordinating all driverless car parking in San Antonio and other cities throughout North America were doing this to increase their profits by making it more difficult for people to walk between places. This organization has purchased tons of empty lots and old shopping centers and turned them into parking lots and charging stations. Even though I pointed out during the speech that half of their lots are mainly empty except for a handful of cars. The city council response was that more people are moving into town and they are going to need those empty lots for the increase in car services. The real purpose in tearing down such historic landmarks is to make sure we will have an excuse to use their service by making sure all places are distant and difficult to walk between. They even reduced our tree coverage and managed to bypass the tree ordnance when it came to vacant lots that the Coalition acquired through the decades.
VIA services have been reduced throughout the city and county. As driverless car service fees risen, it's making it harder for people with fixed incomes to get around. Back in 2030 made a deal with Uber to take over areas where circulators, (the 600 routes) operate to increase Crosstown and Express Bus routes, Today, VIA is reducing their Crosstown services so to just two routes. Apparently the Driverless Car Coalition convinced them that it would be cheaper to provide all crosstown routes with shared driverless vehicles that can be obtained after a short wait. But there's hardly ever a short wait to use the Uber/VIA services. Wait times can b eup to two hrs and during rainy and cold days, it can be up to four hours. It's not going to affect me much, but still, it going to affect those of us who depend on crosstown routes to get around.
I love riding my bicycle everyday and it shows how I'm fit and in better health than my fellow coworkers. But with San Antonio going down the drain, I really don't see fighting for this city being worthwhile anymore. It's becoming Detroit with no culture.
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