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Passengers boarding an Amtrak train on the platform at the William F. Walsh Regional Transportation Center off Park Street.

(Eastbound train departed at about 6:55 a.m. Ellen M. Blalock / The Post-Standard)

To the Editor;

A high-speed rail system sounds great, but the reality is that high-speed rail does not mean high-speed travel. Most of the proposed options only have an average speed in the mid 50 mph range. None of the travel time from New York City to Niagara Falls is really that impressive, not to mention that most of them are based on express services. Couple this less than desirable average speed with the fact that most travelers are traveling to and from destinations other than train stations, and the reality of a high speed rail starts to sound like low-speed travel. Finally, individual travelers have to sync their travel time with other travelers causing further delays for them.

A high-speed rail system in New York would still rely heavily on local mass transit options once a traveler gets to the local train station. This is not a big problem for a city like NYC, but for others like Syracuse, Rochester, Albany, and Buffalo, that lack any cost/time effective mass transit systems, travelers will have to incur the added cost and time restrictions of a taxi travel.

Let's look to the future of travel and invest in technology that will have a profound impact on it. Yes, I am talking about autonomous or driverless cars. Driverless cars will ultimately be the highest speed travel option. Driverless cars will be able to deliver faster regional and state travel times over the proposed "high-speed" rail options. They will be able to get you from your starting point to your end point faster than rail travel, which is most likely not a train station. Individual travelers will not have to wait or sync their travel times with others, they will be free to come and go as they like. Also driverless cars will be used by the masses on a daily basis instead of the occasional travel on a rail system. They will have a profound impact on all New Yorkers and not just those that live close to the rail stations.

You say cars don't go that fast, you are correct, cars operated by humans currently don't average that high of a speed, but about the same as the proposed rail systems. But once driverless cars are a mass reality and car accident deaths are all but eliminated, auto speeds will significantly increase. Human capabilities behind the wheel are the main limiting factor for today's auto speeds. Remove the human from the equation and speeds will significantly increase, especially on major routes.

What is there to invest in today to pave the way for driverless cars you ask? Our current road infrastructure, as roads will still be very relevant with driverless cars. Rules and regulations, as lawmakers in NY should be paving the way in regards to how driverless cars will be integrated into our current transportation system. Laws and regulations always seem to be lagging behind technology. Wouldn't it be great if, for once, that wasn't the case, and New York was the state that made it happen? New York could also be working with some of the big driverless car players like Google and Volvo to see what we can do to help expedite the reality of driverless cars here. There will be issues specific to New York that will have to be overcome, such as our weather (snow), for driverless cars to perform well here. Maybe we could research cost effective sensors that would line major routes to help guide the cars and provide additional condition information to them.

Let's invest in the future and not old technology that we have already "missed the train on." I believe no matter what choices we make on the rail system, driverless cars will be the future and will cause many forms of travel in the future, such as rail travel, to be obsolete.

Daniel S Herrling

Auburn

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