| dc.description.abstract | The advent of autonomous vehicles presents both opportunities and challenges to planners who might see the potential of new technologies in supporting more compact cities but worry about the potential downsides of carbon-intensive development. However, cities struggle to anticipate and then plan for autonomous vehicles and the cities they will reshape. This is particularly true for smaller cities, which account for the majority of future population growth, but political power, technical knowledge, and planning capacity are often insufficient.
This study engages with the concern through an exploration of the social and spatial implications of autonomous vehicles, with a focus on small and medium-sized metropolitan areas. Specifically, I ask three questions. First, how might commuters behave and respond to autonomous vehicles? Second, what are the implications of engagement in in-vehicle activities in autonomous vehicles for time use, and might these implications further exacerbate inequality? Finally, if autonomous vehicles had been introduced to cities, what spatial changes would prevail?
This study addresses the research questions through a combination of analytical and research methods involving a large-scale stated experiment on the behavioral impacts of autonomous vehicles on commuters in small and medium-sized metropolitan areas and a counterfactual analysis to explore whether and to what extent the behavioral changes might lead to spatial changes of cities.
I find that the potential impact of autonomous vehicles on the value of travel time is modest, socially differentiated, and location specific. Suburban commuters have the largest reduction in perceived travel time costs, followed by their urban and rural counterparts. Also, it is not surprising to find that commuters envision themselves to engage in in-vehicle activities differently. Commuters who live in suburban areas with longer commuting trips are more likely to engage in in-vehicle activities, such as working and reading. This propensity does not differ by gender and, thus, I argue that while autonomous vehicles may improve overall activity participation, they will fail to close the gap in activity participation between men and women. The potential changes in travel behavior could ultimately lead to changes in urban spatial structure. I find that urban expansion rather than urban densification would have been the dominant effect if autonomous vehicles had been introduced to the cities.
The findings of this study contribute to the ongoing debate concerning whether autonomous vehicles will aggravate urban sprawl by demonstrating that autonomous vehicles tend to create an enabling environment for suburban living and will most likely lead to greater urban expansion. | en |
