Autonomous vehicles and changing the future of cities: Technical and urban perspectives

When the first car hit the road in the early 19th century, municipal officials, architects and urban planners had to think differently about the infrastructure and mass development of cities, whether existing or new. The age of narrow roads, pedestrians and short journeys gave way to wide boulevards, interstate highways and suburban growth. These urban planning improvements were intended to enable the car to transport a greater number of people more quickly and safely, without the drawbacks of urban transit. This caused cities to suffer from issues such as unnecessary demolition of houses, degradation of areas for roads, reduction or loss of public transport and dislocation of intimate communities. Now that the mass market will embrace autonomous cars, buses and other innovations over the next decade, urban designers and officials need to reconsider how disruptive technologies can influence our way of life, work and play. Autonomous vehicles (AVs) provide a new way of joining social conversations about urban infrastructure, mobility, community and street functions. AVs will disrupt the urban areas between city centres and the rural outskirts. This paper analyses the impact of AVs on modelling urban forms. The AV has the advantage of optimising various parking locations, thus freeing up the downtown area for other uses. The reduced cost per kilometre is also a popular advantage. Increased access to AVs benefits workers’ welfare, traffic flow, travel distances and city size. The paper concludes by discussing the overall implications of AV implementation for urban transport and mass transit.