Planning and technical innovation essential as cities prepare for autonomous vehicles

There can be little doubt that road safety has improved leaps and bounds since innovations like the three-point seatbelt were first mandated, but the fact remains that in city centre environments, vulnerable road users—pedestrians and cyclists—remain at risk. Consider New York City: Mayor Bill de Blasio has dreams of eliminating road fatalities by 2024, his own ‘vision zero initiative’, but in 2018 marked 200 deaths, including a rise in pedestrian deaths. What’s more, cyclist deaths are already up 50% in 2019—15 to date, compared with 2018’s grand total of ten, following a bloody week at the end of June which saw three people killed.