How cities are outgrowing the automobile

"the “new mobility”... cities in which residents no longer rely on their cars but on public transport, shared cars and bikes and, above all, on real-time data on their smartphones. ... transform not just transport but the cities themselves ... rebalance the public space and create a city for people ... less pollution, less noise, less stress... a more walkable city... transport sociologists say that information about mobility is 50% of mobility. The car will become an accessory to the smartphone... ‘peak car’ seems to have been reached in America, with young people favouring what they call transit; and there is a trend of younger people no longer seeing the car as central to their lives...We are increasingly seeing the car as a functional technology to get from A to B, rather than the much more symbolic representation it had in defining society in previous generations.... in the future, instead of buying cars, we will have a monthly contract with a supplier which ...understands my needs, constantly learns about my profile, and gives me a package according to what I’m prepared to pay... a shared, autonomous, self-driving car service could radically transform the way people move around a city without building a single road – just as Airbnb is transforming the approach to accommodation without building a single hotel. They don’t own any buildings at all, they write code..." - End of the car age: how cities are outgrowing the automobile | Cities | The Guardian