How Autonomous Vehicles Can Affect Anomalies of Urban Transportation

Autonomous vehicles (AVs) are rapidly becoming a reality, with a series of cities in the world currently testing applications. Despite these developments, the existing analyses in the literature concerning the impacts of such developments on urban transportation systems have yielded a body of evidence marked by significant divergence and contradictory conclusions. Such conflicting findings critically hamper the synthesis of a coherent understanding and the formulation of evidence-based strategies, a challenge exacerbated by the potentially multifaceted nature of these impacts. The potential disruptive technology and the game-changing force of automated vehicles make this lack of congruence in analytical outcomes severely complicate efforts to derive clear insights or actionable conclusions. The purpose of the paper is to explore and define the optimal strategies for implementing autonomous vehicle technologies, to predict their effects on anomalies, in the Kuhnian sense, of urban transportation, and to propose a desirable urban vision and a paradigm shift consisting of a decline of car ownership dependence and the rise of shared AVs. This study is undertaken to address the escalating crisis in urban transportation globally. Cities are facing unprecedented strain due to rapid urbanization, leading to severe traffic congestion, pervasive air and noise pollution, significant safety risks, and persistent accessibility gaps, all of which profoundly diminish urban quality of life and impede economic vitality. The new vision has been assessed based on a literature selection, some qualitative and quantitative analyses, and applications and projects currently in testing. The results are largely positive and promise to change urban transportation radically, as well as to resolve the mismatches between the vision, what the paradigm predicts, and what is revealed in the implementation. The success of the vision ultimately depends on policy and regulation to manage the way in which AVs are implemented in urban areas, if they are not to lead to a worsening of the urban environment, accessibility, and health. This thoughtful implementation should address all potential challenges through integrated planning of transportation, land use, and digital systems.