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Comment by imgabe | Hacker News Reader

If you want to have fun, there will no doubt be private tracks where you can go and drive in a fun way. As someone who just gave up commuting about 1 traffic-laden hour each way, driving stopped being fun long, long ago.

Too many of my commutes were made an unnecessary 50% or more longer because of drivers who were probably having a lot of fun until they caused an accident and backed up the road for everyone else.

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At the same time, the entire continent is finally pushing back on that 1-hour commute. People are returning to cities, transit and infill and dense construction are becoming political issues, etc. Part of the impetus for this re-urbanization is the misery of commute.

Beyond commuting woes, density is also more efficient for providing services and for environmental concerns.

So I'm slightly worried that a move towards self-driving cars will allow us to backslide on this progress. Obviously I want the technology - it will be safer, more efficient, and healthier - but I'm worried about how culture could shift around it.

When did people leave cities then? Which cities were shrinking but now aren't?

This article gives a good overview in the USA: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Largest_cities_in_the_United_St...

I can't see any cities there that significantly shrank and then grew again. Care to name some if you know of any?

New York's population was steady from 1950-1970 before dropping about 10% between 1970 and 1980. Considering that the US population increased by about 50% between 1950 and 1980, I'd consider that a rather significant decrease.

Backslide, or return to making forward progress against crowding? ;)

I autocross and take my car to a private track for time trials, I'm starting to face the fact that this is not the best plan because there is now a karting track (0-120 in 6 seconds) that is closer to me.

My car, that I justified it's sportiness because of this hobby, is more expensive at the track, burns more, fuel, has more maintenance issues, and could just never perform the 3gs that a kart can.

Embrace the Kart. My dad used to do that as a hobby and they're impressive machines. Just remember that you've got no crumple zones and your legs are right at the front.

As someone with a similar commute, I lament I can only upvote this once. Every time I-95 severely backs up because some asshole managed to crash on a day with perfect weather and visibility, I think to myself: "I hope it was worth it."

As bad as being stuck in traffic is, usually you're having a better day than whoever was involved in the wreck, most of whom probably didn't do it on purpose.

I would LOVE to have the car drive me autonomously to the track and back. Highway driving is tiring/dangerous/boring.

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