No abstract

This article seeks to clarify how autonomous vehicles (AV) could affect urban planning and the built environment, to what extent these effects are compatible with municipalities' existing objectives, and what lessons can be drawn from that. The paper combines a systematic review of the literature, a quantitative online survey and qualitative interviews with representatives from urban transport planning authorities in Germany. Four concrete 'use cases' were applied to structure the survey.Results show that respondents are rather skeptical about the compatibility of AV with existing transport and urban planning objectives, above all to strengthen non-motorized transportation and to promote public transportation. Particularly, automating private motorized travel appears not to match municipal planning perspectives. On the contrary, transport planners think that shared autonomous vehicles as a complement to public transport systems are more appropriate to support urban development strategies. Their most prominent concern with respect to AV is the expectation that car travel will increase with AV, propagating problems like congestion and negative environmental effects. However, survey respondents expect that effects differ quite strongly depending on how AV will occur.As a lesson, the study suggests that different AV use cases should receive specific attention to explore their potentials and challenges. The study likewise suggests to, given the discrepancy between the objectives of urban transport planning and federal government's policy focus, consider consolidating the communal strategic positions on research and development priorities. The results indicate a demand for studies that demonstrate how AV can respond to more fundamental challenges and goals that city planner's face. Given the wide range of potential implications, the study suggests to broaden the debate from its present primary focus on the transport planning domain to city planning and development.

Mobility, transport and land use patterns in urban areas are closely bound up with each other [1]. Urban form plays an important role when households and businesses make mobility decisions, and to a considerable degree dictates transport mode choice. Compact city form with high density and mixed use provide good preconditions for short trips and efficient public transportation, promote walking and cycling, and often render daily car use unnecessary. With sprawling, sparsely populated land uses, on the other hand, walking and cycling are discouraged, while car use is favored. In turn, the availability and use of designated transport modes strongly influences urban form and the necessary infrastructures. The residential suburbanization of the latter half of last century was thus to a great extent encouraged by car availability and the expansion of the transport infrastructure for motorized passenger transport [2]. It is expected that fully automated driving will entail a completely new transport system, which will not only bring with it new possibilities in traffic management, but will also generate completely new types of transport provision that will affect the choice and use of available transport means (see Chap. 12). The idea, for example, that time in a vehicle does not have to be spent on driving-related tasks, but instead permits other activities, may instigate a complete reappraisal of the time factor (e.g. [28]). This ability to attend to other activities in an autonomous vehicle may imply that long car commutes will be considered less a burden than today. This could increase the willingness of households to locate further away from the city center where land prices and rents are lower and where suburban preferences like living in a D. Heinrichs (&) German Aerospace Centre (DLR),

No abstract