“Ask any Los Angeles resident about L.A.’s greatest challenges and the answer will most likely include: ‘traffic’,” begins David E. Ryu, the L.A. City Councilman for the 4th District, in a call for the rapid implementation of autonomous vehicles in the city.

Citing their potential to reduce traffic, “create greater transportation equity”, and reduce vehicular deaths, Ryu proposes that the Department of Transportation quickly put together a report on the benefits of implementing autonomous transit.

“In the 20th century, Los Angeles’ streetcars and freeways each set national standards and propelled our quality of life and economy forward,” writes Ryu. “Today, we are mired in gridlock, and it is time once again for our city to lead the way, this time into the 21st century as the trailblazer on autonomous vehicle technology."

For more on autonomous vehicles, check out these articles:

• The view from inside a self-driving Uber: "the technology is not quite ready"
• Japan gunning for Tokyo to take on driverless vehicles by 2020 Olympic Games
• Tesla Model S driver suffers fatal crash while using autopilot, in first known death involving an autonomous vehicle
• Would self-driving cars be useful to people living outside urban cores?