Why the roads of the future won't need stripes


Here in the Phoenix area, the roads all have stripes, most of which are kept very visible. The reason for the stripes is to tell the drivers where to keep their cars on the road. It never snows here, and it's very rare for those stripes to not be visible. But future roads with self-driving cars and only professional drivers won't need stripes.

This occured to me last week when I was watching the cars struggle to figure out where they should be after a major road was paved in my area. Of course the stripes are all there now, with yellow, and white, and even arrows painted on the ground, and it's obvious that these visual references are very important to most people.

Speaking for myself, I never needed stripes on the road. I learned to drive in Minneapolis, where for about half of the year the roads are covered with enough snow, sludge, or whatever, that you just have to kinda know where you should be driving. Arrows painted on the road would become invisible after the lightest snowfall. You looked at where other cars were, where the snow banks on the side of road were, and drove. It really wasn't until I moved to Phoenix that I saw so much visual information painted on the roads.

Of course self-driving cars won't need those. And neither will professional drivers, like the people I've known who drive trucks for a living. They watch where they're going, they're not just following the lines.

By the way, believe or not, the neighborhood where I learned to drive didn't have stop signs at the intersections, unless it was a very busy street. These were called "uncontrolled intersections" and you simply watched, and if someone got to an intersection before you, they went ahead of you, just like walking around, or pushing a shopping cart. So I imagine a future world without lines on the road, or stop signs. There may not even be signs directing you, as everything will be guided by GPS, either by artifical intelligence, or higher intelligence (professional drivers).

In the meantime it's wise to watch the vehicles carefully, because those are only lines painted on the road, and often even that isn't enough. Let's be careful out there!
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