How Can Urban Planning Engage with the AV Revolution

1.5CM/LUPending

The rapid pace of innovation in AV technology has positioned urban areas on the precipice of massive urban change. AVs have been touted as a means to alleviate congestion, reduce fossil fuel dependence, improve safety, promote urban vitality, and expand mobility for low-income travelers and non-drivers. Yet, uncertainties abound as AVs will also require new infrastructure and regulations, and may radically disrupt real estate and labor markets. The planning profession has witnessed waves of excitement like this before. This session will explore how planning can engage with the AV revolution by: describing the historical roots of planning’s embrace of modernity through programs such as Urban Renewal and the Interstate Highway Act; analyzing the problems AVs are purported to address; predicting new problems AVs will create; and proposing a planning approach to better anticipate, understand, and mitigate externalities and unintended consequences likely to arise from the AV revolution.