Future cities will ban driving, says Atari founder Bushnell

[bing101]

http://www.usatoday.com/story/tech/2015/11/07/future-cities-ban-driving-says-atari-founder-bushnell/75401772/


https://soundcloud.com/usatodaytech/in-20-years-it-will-be-illegal-to-drive-in-cities-atari-founder-nolan-bushnell


Well This is going to take some time to think about.

[The Nature Boy]

Whenever I'm in Boston or DC (the two cities I visit most), I dump my car in the suburbs and take public transit around. I wouldn't be opposed to this.

You would also have to greatly improve public transit for this to be a reality though.

[Brandon]

Given his track record with Atari, I sincerely doubt it.

[ET21]

Give me a flying car then 

[empirestate]

As is often the case with this type of prediction, the idea itself isn't off-base at all, but the time frame certainly is. Twenty years is much too soon for this to come true, but there's no reason to doubt it will eventually come to pass.

[GCrites]

Given his track record with Atari, I sincerely doubt it.

He sold it way before The Crash. The Crash of 1983 happened while Warner Brothers owned the company. Then the Tramiel brothers owned it until selling it to Hasbro in 1998.

[formulanone]

Given his track record with Atari, I sincerely doubt it.

Given his track record after Atari, I doubt anything he has to say.

[Scott5114]

I don't think a full-on ban of motor vehicle traffic is realistic. There are too many times when a car is necessary, even in an urban environment like NYC, to outright ban it. A more likely scenario is more widespread application of heavy penalties like London's congestion charge that will encourage citizens to avoid car use whenever possible.

[empirestate]

I don't think a full-on ban of motor vehicle traffic is realistic. There are too many times when a car is necessary, even in an urban environment like NYC, to outright ban it. A more likely scenario is more widespread application of heavy penalties like London's congestion charge that will encourage citizens to avoid car use whenever possible.

Did he suggest that? The quote I saw was only about banning operator-driven vehicles, but I didn't listen to the full podcast.

[kurumi]

After driving is banned, cars will be buried in a New Mexico landfill.

[jeffandnicole]

I don't think a full-on ban of motor vehicle traffic is realistic. There are too many times when a car is necessary, even in an urban environment like NYC, to outright ban it. A more likely scenario is more widespread application of heavy penalties like London's congestion charge that will encourage citizens to avoid car use whenever possible.

Or when someone lives in the city.  Are they going to build massive parking garages outside the city for the tens or hundreds of thousands of cars people within the city own?

[empirestate]

I don't think a full-on ban of motor vehicle traffic is realistic. There are too many times when a car is necessary, even in an urban environment like NYC, to outright ban it. A more likely scenario is more widespread application of heavy penalties like London's congestion charge that will encourage citizens to avoid car use whenever possible.

Or when someone lives in the city.  Are they going to build massive parking garages outside the city for the tens or hundreds of thousands of cars people within the city own?

No, those people would still be taking them into town; they just wouldn't be driving them there. The cars will be driving themselves there, according to the prediction.

[Buffaboy]

You learn something new every day: the guy who founded Atari also founded Chuck-E-Cheese's. Wow.

[Brandon]

You learn something new every day: the guy who founded Atari also founded Chuck-E-Cheese's. Wow.

I had the displeasure of going to a Chuck-E-Cheese a few years ago.  Friend's kid wanted to go.  It's a pale shadow of what Showbiz Pizza was before the merger.  Every flipping game was one of those ticket dispensing things.  No real arcade games to speak of.  The only bright spot was the skeeball.

[Rothman]

Whenever I'm in Boston or DC (the two cities I visit most), I dump my car in the suburbs and take public transit around. I wouldn't be opposed to this.

You would also have to greatly improve public transit for this to be a reality though.

Parking at Alewife and taking the Red Line in used to be a deal due to cheap parking and T fares.  Now that parking at Alewife + the fares (for my family of 4) are comparable to just driving into where I want to go and paying for a garage, that's what I do.  It's really too bad.  I'd prefer to do the public transit route, but the economic incentive just isn't there any more.

[GCrites]

You learn something new every day: the guy who founded Atari also founded Chuck-E-Cheese's. Wow.

I had the displeasure of going to a Chuck-E-Cheese a few years ago.  Friend's kid wanted to go.  It's a pale shadow of what Showbiz Pizza was before the merger.  Every flipping game was one of those ticket dispensing things.  No real arcade games to speak of.  The only bright spot was the skeeball.

Arcade cabs are for adults now. Kids love those redemption machines. They can play some Skee-ball then walk off with a Charmander plush or something.

[vdeane]

I preferred Discovery Zone.