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Autonomous vehicles and changing the future of cities: Technical and urban perspectives
Journal of Urban Regeneration and Renewal,
16
(1),
85-108
(2022)
Abstract
When the first car hit the road in the early 19th century, municipal officials, architects and urban planners had to think differently about the infrastructure and mass development of cities, whether existing or new. The age of narrow roads, pedestrians and short journeys gave way to wide boulevards, interstate highways and suburban growth. These urban planning improvements were intended to enable the car to transport a greater number of people more quickly and safely, without the drawbacks of urban transit. This caused cities to suffer from issues such as unnecessary demolition of houses, degradation of areas for roads, reduction or loss of public transport and dislocation of intimate communities. Now that the mass market will embrace autonomous cars, buses and other innovations over the next decade, urban designers and officials need to reconsider how disruptive technologies can influence our way of life, work and play. Autonomous vehicles (AVs) provide a new way of joining social conversations about urban infrastructure, mobility, community and street functions. AVs will disrupt the urban areas between city centres and the rural outskirts. This paper analyses the impact of AVs on modelling urban forms. The AV has the advantage of optimising various parking locations, thus freeing up the downtown area for other uses. The reduced cost per kilometre is also a popular advantage. Increased access to AVs benefits workers’ welfare, traffic flow, travel distances and city size. The paper concludes by discussing the overall implications of AV implementation for urban transport and mass transit.
Keywords: urban mobility; urban mobility automation; self-driving car; autonomous vehicle (AV)
The full article is available to subscribers to the journal.
Author's Biography
Ahmed Hosney Radwan ’s area of research covers architecture and arts, urban design and upgrading, smart cities, healthy cities, intelligent transport systems, cargotecture, mediatecture, smart façades, sustainable design, and community participation. Recent research has focused on urban public spaces from different aspects and on different levels. Ahmed has participated in many national, regional and international conferences and workshops, published many research papers in national and international journals, in addition to supervising and examining PhD and Master’s theses in Egyptian universities (Helwan, Mansoura, Ain Shams) and German universities (Cottbus, Stuttgart) in the fields of urban design, heritage conservation, smart buildings responsive architecture, green roofs and others.
Ahmed Abdel Ghaney Morsi Ahmed Abd Elghany Morsi is a Professor of Architecture and urban design at the Faculty of Fine Arts in the Architecture Department in Helwan University. Since 2020, he has also held the position of Adjunct Professor of Architecture at the MSA Faculty of Engineering and Faculty of Arts and Design. His areas of research cover architecture and arts, urban design and planning, urban upgrading, smart cities, healthy cities, ITS, sustainable design and community participation. His recent research has focussed on urban public spaces. He has participated in many national and international conferences and workshops, published many research papers in national and international journals, in addition to supervising and examining PhD and Master theses in Egyptian and German universities in the fields of urban design, responsive urbanism and confronting informal urbanism. Ahmed graduated and achieved his MA and PhD of Architecture from the Faculty of Fine Arts in the Architecture Department in Helwan University. He is a real estate appraiser, certified by a number of formal authorities. Ahmed is a reviewer for international conferences and journals. He has vast experience in conducting qualitative research and fieldwork in different contexts. He is currently working as the Director of Helwan University international student’s bureau, Vice Director of Helwan University Hub for research and scientific innovation and Helwan University Centre of African Studies.
