[Animats]

No, the way it will work is that roads will have "surge pricing". You'll bid on road space before you leave, and don't get to leave until there's road space for you.

US airport landing slots work like that now. Commercial flights don't take off for congested destinations until they've booked a landing slot. This eliminated circling the destination waiting for a landing slot.

[fragsworth]

Or you could leave whenever you like, and there's an automated toll on every road that adjusts based on time of day and/or current traffic.

[yorwba]

That only works to prevent congestion if some people decide not to drive on a road when the toll is too high. In that case, why drive there in the first place if your AI car can tell you in advance how much it will cost.

[alex_duf]

Then there's hope as it's probably cheaper to have buses full of people than individual cars

[Cthulhu_]

It already is, but based on the availability and popularity of buses, it's not likely.

IMO it's big employers that should push towards setting up large bus / train hubs in cities surrounding them, allowing commuters to only need to get to the bus station themselves. There's some companies that generate multiple percents of commuter traffic pretty much everywhere. They're the ones that should also do their part, by offering more efficient transportation and by opening satellite offices. There's no benefit in having 50.000 people work all in the same campus.

[alex_duf]

>It already is, but based on the availability and popularity of buses, it's not likely.

I guess it depends where. Here in London buses are everywhere.

It's an interesting take on who's responsibility it is to provide transport. My personal view (neither more not less valid than yours) is that it should be the job of the local authorities to provide transport (council or state). It will help companies of all sizes to grow rather than leaving the responsibility on a few big corporations, and it would give access to transport to every employee, not just googlers. That's only possible if the tax system is well thought and functioning, including taxing said big corporations.

[stevenwoo]

California is/was? running a pilot program to charge car owners on miles driven instead of gas taxes. Maybe another option is additional "surge" charges to cover this as well. http://www.dot.ca.gov/road_charge/resources/index.html