Shifting Spaces: Understanding the Impacts of Autonomous Vehicles on Land Use Webinar

Cities are beginning to confront a new set of land use and zoning questions as autonomous vehicles (AVs) and shared mobility systems move closer to widespread adoption. While much of the conversation has focused on the technologies themselves, less attention has been paid to how these shifts will fundamentally reshape urban land use: What happens to parking, gas stations, and car-focused land uses? Where will new mobility-supporting infrastructure be located? And how should land use and zoning evolve in response?

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This webinar marks the release of Shifting Spaces: Understanding the Impacts of Autonomous Vehicles on Land Use, a new report produced by the Urbanism Next Center in collaboration with the Center of Excellence on New Mobility and Automated Vehicles. The research examines how emerging mobility systems may transform land use patterns, focusing on identifying parcels and place types most likely to change.

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The project combines a national literature review with a GIS-based case study analysis in Los Angeles County to assess redevelopment potential across a range of auto-oriented land uses. It also explores how zoning frameworks may need to adapt to accommodate both the decline of traditional vehicle-serving uses and the rise of new mobility-related land uses, such as fleet storage, servicing, and logistics facilities.

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Nico Larco will begin the webinar with an overview of the project and its motivation. Robert Binder will then present the study’s methodology, spatial analysis, key findings, and major takeaways, highlighting where and how land use change is most likely to occur. Marisa Laderach will provide a regional perspective, offering an overview of land use planning and emerging technology-related projects and programs in the Southern California Association of Governments (SCAG) region, and how SCAG is approaching the relationship between land use and future mobility. The webinar will conclude with a moderated discussion and Q&A led by Anne Brown, intended as a forward-looking conversation on how cities and regions can proactively adapt land use policies to support a more flexible, efficient, and sustainable urban future.

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This event occurred on the 7th of May 2026. Watch the webinar below: