Bring ‘em on? Planning for the Robo-cars

Now is the time for planners to engage in the public debate on vehicle-automation – leaving it to the car-makers and search-engine providers (and their legions of techies) won’t deliver the livability outcomes planners aim to achieve.

3 minute read

June 21, 2013, 4:14 AM PDT

By Scott Le Vine @scottericlevine


Planners have had a – shall we say – rocky relationship with the automobile.  The passionate love affair of the parkway-building heyday is a distant memory.  Interstate Highways are here to stay, for better or worse (perhaps with tinkering at the margins).  In the early 21st century we’ve settled into a loveless marriage: Planners recognize the car isn’t going away any time soon (a debatable proposition, in point of fact), but it is tolerated rather than embraced.  The prevailing view in the profession today is that driving is a necessary evil, to be minimized in favor of active travel and public transportation.

The ground is shifting beneath our feet, however.  Breakthroughs in sensing, processing and control technologies have brought vehicle-automation out of the realm of science fiction.  (True, the taco-copter still isn’t delivering just yet).  As many of you will know, state legislatures are beginning to regulate automated cars (the lobbyists are swarming), but the leading legal thinking is that if it ain’t explicitly prohibited – and in general it ain’t – then it’s (probably) a legal activity.

With the major technical barriers to automated-operation now addressed, the remaining challenges are still difficult, but more prosaic:

  • reliably delivering increasing levels of automation,
  • scaling-up from prototypes to the mass market,
  • identifying the appropriate role of the public and private sectors in the regulatory / legal / institutional /  insurance framework,
  • developing viable business cases (e.g. for alternative forms of vehicle-ownership),
  • managing deployment in mixed-traffic (and mixed-road-user) environments,
  • quantifying (and planning for) the implications on land use, energy consumption, and wider lifestyles,
  • and so forth.

The year’s ‘main event’ is the 2nd Annual Road Vehicle Automation Conference (www.vehicleautomation.org), organized by the Transportation Research Board and taking place at Stanford University’s Law School from July 16th to 19th, 2013. 

Now is the time for planners to engage – leaving this to the car-makers and search-engine providers (and their legions of techies) won’t deliver the livability outcomes planners aim to achieve.  Events on-the-ground will pass us by if we ignore this trend, to the profession’s detriment. 

A sampling of impacts planners need to be thinking about: how does parking provision (and its enforcement by municipalities) change? What are the (likely countervailing) pressures for further sprawl versus more compact land use patterns? How could sleeker street design improve pedestrian connectivity? What are the realities of how people will make use of the new capabilities offered by automation – and the implications for the public realm?  And what does increasingly-intelligent and connected transportation mean for the quality-of-life of cognitively or physically disabled people?

I’m keenly looking forward to the conference’s agenda, which includes deep-dive workshops on – among a range of topics – Shared-Mobility and Transit, Energy and Environmental Impacts, and Cyber-security and System Resiliency (hacking?).  Beyond the scientific content will be the unique opportunity to demo an automated vehicle.

I hope you’re able to join us in Palo Alto, and if you will be attending please get in touch: slevine (at) imperial.ac.uk.

Scott Le Vine, AICP is a research associate in transport systems at Imperial College London.  He is currently preparing a Think Piece on Vehicle-Automation for the Independent Transport Commission.


Scott Le Vine

Scott Le Vine, AICP is an Assistant Professor (Urban Planning) at the State University of New York (New Paltz), a Research Associate at Imperial College London, and a Visiting Professor at Southwest Jiaotong University (Chengdu, China).

Sweeping view of Portland, Oregon with Mt. Hood in background against sunset sky.

Oregon Passes Exemption to Urban Growth Boundary

Cities have a one-time chance to acquire new land for development in a bid to increase housing supply and affordability.

March 12, 2024 - Housing Wire

Aerial view of green roofs with plants in Sydney, Australia.

Where Urban Design Is Headed in 2024

A forecast of likely trends in urban design and architecture.

March 10, 2024 - Daily Journal of Commerce

Cobblestone street with streetcar line, row of vintage streetlights on left, and colorful restaurant and shop awnings on right on River Street in Savannah, Georgia.

Savannah: A City of Planning Contrasts

From a human-scales, plaza-anchored grid to suburban sprawl, the oldest planned city in the United States has seen wildly different development patterns.

March 12, 2024 - Strong Towns

Aerial View of Chuckanut Drive and the Blanchard Bridge in the Skagit Valley.

Washington Tribes Receive Resilience Funding

The 28 grants support projects including relocation efforts as coastal communities face the growing impacts of climate change.

March 18 - The Seattle Times

Historic buildings in downtown Los Angeles with large "Pan American Lofts" sign on side of building.

Adaptive Reuse Bills Introduced in California Assembly

The legislation would expand eligibility for economic incentives and let cities loosen regulations to allow for more building conversions.

March 18 - Beverly Press

View from above of swan-shaped paddleboats with lights on around artesian fountain in Echo Park Lake with downtown Los Angeles skylien in background at twilight.

LA's Top Parks, Ranked

TimeOut just released its list of the top 26 parks in the L.A. area, which is home to some of the best green spaces around.

March 18 - TimeOut

News from HUD User

HUD's Office of Policy Development and Research

Call for Speakers

Mpact Transit + Community

New Updates on PD&R Edge

HUD's Office of Policy Development and Research

Write for Planetizen

Urban Design for Planners 1: Software Tools

This six-course series explores essential urban design concepts using open source software and equips planners with the tools they need to participate fully in the urban design process.

Planning for Universal Design

Learn the tools for implementing Universal Design in planning regulations.