Vehicle Automation and Transport System Performance

1. Concepts of motor vehicle automation
2. Stages of deployment
3. Theoretical structure
4. Tools, methods, and models for evaluating automated vehicles’ impact
5. Effects on the level of the traffic system
6. Effects on the transport system
7. Effects on the spatial level

The population residing in metropolitan regions is projected to grow from 54% (value of 2014) to roughly 66% of the world's population by 2050, followed by a gross growth from 7.1 bil. to 9.5 bil. Throughout 2007, the world's 300 big cities accounted for over 50% of the world's GDP (gross domestic product) and this number is projected to rise to 60% by 2025.

Although density may contribute to certain scale economies by rendering public transport of high-capacity (PT) feasible, the fact is that broad conurbations consist of various densities and land-uses. These result in specific traffic levels and mobility trends that impede the primary usage of PT. In fact, mobility is growing more flexible in terms of location and time arising from expanded demands for engagement in events and accessible travelling funds.

Roads in this respect have been a big factor for having made movement more dynamic in the preceding decades, and by offering the chance to travel in private vehicles, a mode which has reduced variable expenses, and is very convenient. In addition, the motorway length rose by 67% in the period between 1990 and 2009, backed by mobility measures in many countries. Cars have been used to stimulate the growth of the economy and provide a higher standard of living and freedom that has been very hard to substitute through other modalities, even in places like the Netherlands with a high standard of transport. But as a result, regardless of the increased use of bicycles and PT, the Netherlands is amongst the most heavily agglomerated countries on the globe.

The massive usage of motor cars as the primary means of transportation has culminated in what economists consider externalities: increased air emissions both globally and locally, lack of travel time, traffic incidents with human and material losses, and land usage development expense arising from large transport service regions, such as roads and car parks. The EU reports that congestion and time spent on roads compensate for 1% of the GDP each year while metropolitan traffic accounts for 40% of emissions of CO2 and 70% of other road contaminants.

Different methods are used to alleviate these impacts and address road pollution, such as: control network traffic monitoring and commuter information, congestion charges and stringent other automobile usage mechanisms, accessibility solutions such as transit systems, and enhancing public transportation. Over the last two decades an increasing enthusiasm over vehicle automation has been registered, while science-fictionists and futurists have envisioned autonomous vehicles working in future societies. Nowadays, it is plausible to assume that automation could become a fact in the several decades to come, as envisioned by these futurists.

Many academic groups around the globe are focusing on the automation of vehicles and some of them are already starting to move from concept to practice. Nevertheless, owing to its groundbreaking technological characteristics, technology isn't merely evolving. It’s structurally embedded into modes of economic, political, and social existence that can profoundly impact technology acceptance. There is also considerable anxiety about the usage of autonomous vehicles and the potential shifts in transportation, accessibility and towns, given rapid technical advances in that area.

Concepts of motor vehicle automation

A thorough concept of automobile automation is important to achieve a comprehensive insight in the transport sector. Automation covers the entire transport system with all its elements, such as users, vehicles, drivers, information systems, applications, and infrastructure. Sometimes, the word automation is used to describe a mechanism which is regulated by a human being. The level at which drivers remain 'in the loop' will be used to distinguish between the various levels of automation for vehicles.

One of the most commonly used automation classifications distinguishes 4 automation levels:

• 1^st level: driver assistance;
• 2^nd level: partial automation;
• 3^rd level: high automation;
• 4^th level: full automation.

During the first level, the driver maintains at all times either lateral (lane-changing, merging, mane-keeping, and overtaking) or longitudinal control (car-following, speed choice).

The ADA system (Advanced Driver Assistance) can automate other tasks to a specific degree. The adaptive cruise control (ACC) and adaptive cruise control (CACC) cooperative programs are forms of driver assistance devices. Adaptive cruise control is a device that facilitates longitudinal performance while maintaining time headway and speed.

The driver can override this system. Cooperative active cruise control is a linear monitoring system. The distinction from ACC is that the CACC enables cars to expand their range of view by using 2 vehicle communication.

Partial automation implies that both the lateral and longitudinal functions are taken over by the vehicle. The driver has to oversee the system permanently and must be ready to regain control anytime. The machine also starts monitoring the lateral and longitudinal control at the third stage, with strong precision, so the driver does not have to continuously track the system any longer.

The driver has to be prepared for an adequate request of takeover mandated by the automated system. The last level implies the vehicle takes over lateral and longitudinal control once again. Nevertheless, if a request of take-over issued by the automated vehicle isn't accepted by the driver, the system returns automatically to a condition of minimal risk.

In addition to the differences between the multiple stages of automation, the terminology of cooperative systems is frequently used in the CACC context. Generally, cooperative vehicle control systems include vehicle-to-vehicle communication or car-infrastructure connectivity, or even both.

Stages of deployment

Despite the uncertainty of when or if the deployment of such vehicles will occur, there is a perspective of deployment staging for car automation. In this sense, two methods can be usually distinguished:

• A functional approach; and
• A geographical approach.

In a geographical strategy, the highest degree of automation will be implemented in a single step, as the implementation areas are gradually expanded. However, the functional strategy is focused on the premise that fully automated technology cannot be implemented instantly, and intermediate measures have to be optimized and defined. An intermediate level towards full automatization can consist of any noticeable increase whose achievement is rather difficult. Reality has already proven that the new movement towards full automation better reflects through the more functional approach.

The various stages of automation may be interpreted as intermediate phases towards full automatization. However, a more comprehensive roadmap to total automation may also be created. A functional phase-out road map of deployment is supplied in this context and the attention is primarily set on automated highway systems (AHS).

It is believed that systems of control assistance and safety warning represent a point of departure for completely automated vehicles. 2 parallel paths are distinguished from systems of control assistance and safety warning. Their applicability will vary for different areas.

In some places, for example, V2V communication can be merged with ACC to supply CACC prior to the implementation of dedicated routes. Safe paths for trucks in certain regions may be supplied until V2V contact is started. The standard of partially autonomous cars is effectively achieved when automatic actuation of steering is applied to CACC cars together with the capability of lane sensing.

The introduction of Vehicle - to - infrastructure connectivity would entail the first individual AHS lanes. Yet, it is also important to monitor connections and networks, and to regulate lane changes as well in order to achieve completely automatic highway systems.

The introduction of these elements is the ultimate phase towards full AHS. Regarding automated vehicle deployment in urban locations, there aren’t currently any studies which provide a deployment level. It represents the tremendous confusion with regard to automatic vehicle technologies and rolling out, particularly in sensitive locations such as metropolitan areas in which there is a much higher risk of communicating with cyclists, pedestrians and other vehicles.

Theoretical structure

The 'Ripple Effects' Framework demonstrates the revolutionary existence and sequential consequences of automated driving technologies for urban form, mobility, and other fields of society.

The 1st ripple concerns travel choices, travel expense and traffic in regards to autonomous driving. Driving automation may affect flow stability, free flow capability, vehicle distribution through lanes, decrease of energy and ultimately productive power by providing assistance to the drivers or even regulating vehicle speed and vehicle headways.

The increase in capacity may be supplemented by a reduction in congestion delay, thereby shortening the time of travel and reducing travel costs. Road costs may often be minimized by reducing VTTS, as transportation expenses (more efficient travel time), less driving discomfort, convenience, and fewer chances of injuries are improved. Reducing the cost of vehicle travel may trigger more VKT, due to increased transportation convenience in other places, and changes in travel options in the modal switch from public transportation to personal car use.

The 2^nd ripple includes the impact of autonomous driving on car sharing and ownership, vehicle design, land usage and location selection, and transportation infrastructure. The increase in capacity may diminish the necessity for investment in conventional street infrastructure and clear street space for bicycle and pedestrian infrastructure.

Moreover, since fully automated cars may succeed to park themselves in cheaper, peripheral locations, fewer parking spaces are needed in the central area. Fully self-sufficient vehicles were designed to promote automobile and driving-sharing schemes, thus cutting down competition for parking spaces in residential areas for locals who do not have automobiles or vehicles of their own.

Yet, the probability of more people being attracted to owning cars with robotics cannot be ignored and thus the need for home parking rises. Reducing travel costs can also impact the option of home, occupations and leisure facilities for families. A surge of urbanization between city centers and inhabitants will cause enhanced convenience in more isolated regions. Also due to the eradication of a high amount of parking areas, we notice the current growth of suburban shopping centers and employment centers.

The 3^rd ripple includes the impact of the integration of automated cars on society such as air pollution, energy consumption, social equity, safety, public health, and economics. This type of impact is caused by the accumulation of the first 2 ripple effects.

Interaction between these effects is possible. The complexity of assessing such impacts is well emphasized in terms of energy consumption. Due to optimized driving behavior, fewer congestion delays, lighter vehicles (enhanced safety), and a shorter search time for parking spaces, autonomous vehicles may improve fuel efficiency. But, the overall VCT may be expanded by transferring housing in exurbs, driving to remote places for transit or leisure purposes, or by new vehicle trips caused by transitions, drop-offs, pick-ups, and the repositioning of vehicles.

The potential impact on energy use is unpredictable and highly reliant on transportation policies (for instance, road prices to curb the need for increased capacity). The impact on social equity, public health, or on the economy depends to a large extent on the overall impact of other areas, such as energy consumption, security, and air pollution.

Tools, methods, and models for evaluating automated vehicles’ impact

The results and application of utilizing tools, models, and methods to evaluate the impact of automated vehicle technology deployment refers to dealing with the performance of traffic flows at a micro level.

However, overall it entails modifications of travel conduct, such as mode choice, trip scheduling, or trip rate. Three types of effects of car automatization on the environment have been emphasized so far.

Effects on the level of the traffic system

Over recent years, the effect of automation on flow performance is the main focus of the scientific community. The key question behind this critical work remains if the varied degrees of automation will improve the vehicles' efficiency on existing road infrastructure from a viewpoint of traffic engineering.

The relation between automation and the reliability of traffic management is also complicated, provided that its impact may be determined by several different variables. As an example, the impact on traffic flow effectiveness may rely on human elements, like user tolerance and conduct adaptation because of the evolving position of drivers, as well as the instrumental settings of automatic systems. Microscopic simulation was used to evaluate the impacts of the calculated techniques and instruments used to research the effects of each specific device configuration.

For the purposes of simulating vehicle flows, a distinction may be created between special and general simulation applications. The distinction between the 2 is that both provide greater detail in relation to each automotive (agent)'s characteristics and sensor functions.

The benefits of general tools of micro-simulation are that such products will model various vehicles to require complex traffic situations to be replicated. Currently, the autonomous driving platform does not provide general micro-simulation program packages like VISSIM (PTV) and AIMSUN.

The latest change efforts are oriented towards introducing an overall microscopic modeling system that recognizes multiple cars operating at the same time to evaluate prospective scenarios of multiple autonomous cars arrayed on highways. For e.g., a simulation method for evaluating several merge junctions at a microscopic level has been developed in the California PATH system. Under this paradigm, a different research method has been built for simulating automatic car dynamics in traffic.

Nonetheless, it can be inferred that most studies are centered primarily on affected traffic flow output (intermediate automation level) through driver assistance systems and not on complete automation. The 2 most renowned systems apply to the cruise control system of vehicles and vary in the likelihood of collaboration between vehicles (CACC and ACC). However, because of the numerous hypotheses about penetration levels of automation, type of car combination (whether automatic or specific brands) and vehicle headways, fleet analogies are often challenging to produce.

The motorway's usual potential varies from 1880 to 2200 cars and the min. transition is between 1.5 and 2.0 sec. in daily traffic. The experimental design can play a critical part, both in the number of paths, in the velocity and the bottleneck, or in the simulation process itself. This may be achieved through various network configurations.

A simulation model named the MIXIC was first used to check ACC's effect on traffic movement-which replicated traffic on a bridge point. Thus, three key components dictated the actions of drivers: lane shift, statistical monitoring, and ACC (turning off and on).

The findings of ACC were negative for efficiency, while they did help boost traffic stability (standard deviation). A minimum of four ACC variations, with a penetration rate between 20 % and 40% and time differences between 1.0 seconds and 1.5 sec, were taken into account for a three lane straight road. As a consequence of ACC, total travel period has risen in all 4 cases, which implies that free flow capacity is being reduced. Travel time rose significantly in 3 cases: from 1% to 4%.

Nevertheless, subsequent simulations of behavioral modeling were carried out in their auto traffic model to test the effect of ACC in terms of traffic performance. On average, the efficiency of the connection increases by 0.3 per cent with every 1% rise in the amount of cars with ACC.

Several studies were focused on agent-driven approaches to construct their models of simulation. The guidelines for agent-based modeling for cooperative / collaborative processes were used in 2005. Intelligence officers were used to control thousands of self-contained cars at intersections where it was found that autonomous vehicles could surpass conventional stop signs at not very busy intersections: automobiles spend less time standing and have lower fuel usage.

F.A.S.T (Flexible Agent-Based Traffic Simulator) was used in 2011 to model 4 lanes in a situation without and even with an entrance slip, and found that CACC has a significant influence on efficiency (as high as 160% with a penetration rate of 100%). It was presumed that CACC automobiles should maintain their advance of 0.5 sec. while going behind another CACC and of 0.8-1.0 seconds when they are going behind a regular vehicle.

The effects of various penetration levels of CACC cars on shock waves on a motorway were investigated in 2011 in Amsterdam. Due to the reduction of streets from 4 to 3 lanes, there was a congestion on the A1 motorway that generated shock waves which impacted the A10 motorway.

To this end, the ITS Modeller was implemented as a new plug-in for the existing traffic simulation program. The ITS Modeler is an innovative modeling system built to enable the modeling of ITS uses in Paramics.

This helps users to circumvent the traditional driver and car behavior models, for the situational driving stage, i.e. the choice of pace and path, and for strategic extent, i.e. the choice of road, equally. The simulation showed that for CACC penetration rates of 5%, 10%, 25%, 50%, 75% and 100%, the overall amount of arrivals (flow indicator) increased by 0%, 3%, 10%, 22%, 39% and 68% respectively.

Regardless of congestion at the intersection, the frequency of shock waves did not exceed the 25% penetration limit. At the 50% penetration point, shock waves will not affect the A10 motorway, so at a 100% penetration rate, there weren’t any of them.

In addition to traffic simulators, driver actions under various ADA structures may be analyzed using simulators for driving. The usage of simulators for driving provides further possibilities for the creation of sensitive circumstances of confrontation with instrumented cars. The literature includes a variety of studies relevant to the safety of drivers, their focus, and vehicle automatization.

The simulator created by StSoftware in 1992 is an early illustration of such a driving simulator. It consists of 3 displays which, relative to each other, are located at an angle of 120 degrees, the driver's seat mock-up and the program interface of this mock-up to the central computer device. For example, driving simulators were used to explain the effect of car platoons on non-platoon drivers in mixed traffic. In a 2014 report, it was found that short-haul platoons cause unmanned drivers to fall under the safe mark. For certain situations, both modeling and empirical tests have been mixed in order to get accurate results on the output of certain structures.

Some of the initial cooperative driving tests in real life were performed in 2005. During these tests, three small cars have been used to check the impact of teamwork on un-signaled road junctions and on the overtaking of another car.

In 2003, a simulation of a traffic pattern focused on a description of car dynamics to predict traffic movements for manual and semi-automated vehicles. Firstly, the findings were confirmed by preparing a car instrument trial. Researchers managed to show that the involvement of semi-automated cars in mixed traffic (for an example of 10 cars trailing a lead car in a single lane) decreases the emissions of contaminants in both smooth and fast acceleration environments, such as a nitrogen oxide reduction to 0.4 per cent in smooth environments and 6.6% in rapid acceleration.

Visual measurements were primarily used for the application of technology in transit networks. Automation of transport isn't recent. There are several tram and subway lines running without a driver in cities such as Barcelona or Paris. In fact, mobility is the foundation for the so-called Personal Rapid Transit (PRT) network, which is a scalable house-to-house public transit program of small-capacity buses and their own specific networks. There are many instances around the globe of its use, but one of the best recognized is that of London Heathrow Airport, ULTra (Urban Light Transit).

On the basis of these ideas, together with the latest advancements in vehicle automation, there are many initiatives that explore the usage in automated road transit systems of pilot experiments. This is the case with CityMobil2, issued in 2014, in which many field studies are being performed in the EU to test the possibilities of automating bus systems. Results are formed from important scientific tests, but also through the response of passengers to its features, such as the need for responsiveness or the lack of a cab.

Effects on the transport system

There are few studies on the effect of automated vehicles on the global mobility framework, either interurban or urban, primarily because there’s a shortage of models and approaches applicable to the topic of knowing what will happen as a consequence of the implementation of autonomous vehicles in our regions and cities.

There are, nevertheless, a range of publications that tentatively mention predicted impacts on the transport network. Such studies have been published by market science professionals on the basis of their expertise and the findings of the analysis of freight supply and demand.

There are drastic developments in the transport engineering and planning fields as they relate to some of the conditions that may impact the acceptance as normal usage of autonomous vehicles, thus the degree to which the overall amount of VKTs would be impacted. In addition to the instrumental specifications of modern cars, such as health and speed, the level of service provided by alternate modes of transport, which may differ by urban environment, would play a role in that measure, as well as understanding the significance of rivalry between modes, and believing that, at least in the medium term, autonomous cars can coexist with each other.

Mode preference in the science of transport is classically clarified by the principle of maximal usefulness, according to which a collection of characteristics of modes and socio-demographic variables of passengers brings importance to the usage of a specific mode of transport.

Cost and time are usually key characteristics, and while there are several tests that calculate the weights of these factors in the mode of preference, there’s no clear analysis to evaluate weight shifts that are supposed to be accomplished with the usage of autonomous vehicles.

In fact, it’s anticipated that improvements will be made to the VTTS inside a private car, since travelers would be willing to utilize their energy in more efficient ways relative to the usage of a traditional automobile. Conceptual variations between traditional traffic systems and potential automatic traffic systems are challenging to foresee, because reality does not drastically change.

Creating such models would make it easier to quantify the amount of passengers coming from regular cars, buses or just walking or biking, the most recent of which will contribute to more VKTs. It’s not feasible to research this subject by utilizing known preferences within the community, as the technology isn't yet in operation, although several experiments are currently in development using defined preference techniques.

Such experiments would make it easier to test characteristics and also the more abstract and affective aspects correlated with the usage of vehicles. This assessment would place the autonomous car either as a revamped private car or an upgraded transit platform.

Predicting the share of private autonomous cars in the fleet is a significant research topic. A consortium of representatives of the Institution of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) estimated that the share would most definitely exceed 75% of the fleet in 2040.

The development times, costs, and acceptance levels of other vehicle innovations were used to infer that half of the implementation would be the most realistic scenario for 2050 and that 3 quarters would only be feasible by 2060.

However, advantages such as lower injury risk may decline with time. Shifting away from the car ownership model to a model more comparable to cell phones with a contract will significantly decrease the period during which the car is in the possession of its owners. This system can be driven by the rise in automobile sharing schemes, and is contributing to a decline in auto ownership.

Public mobility networks are also relevant for debates on the effects of automated vehicles in potential communities. Getting cars with level 4 automation ensures that such vehicles can be used in practice as a transport network that has lower cost trips relative to taxis due to a lack of driver costs.

This would be a kind of car-sharing program where the automobile doesn’t have to be recovered at a certain stage. Instead, it could be called and the passenger may drop off at any location in the covered area.

The house-to-house transport network, composed of private cars, has been a practice for several decades with some well-known taxi services, because citizens may call and arrange for one to appear at their address. Several advances in the usage of technology to help navigate such processes have been examined: enabling more than one service to be offered and requiring cell phone services, the so-called taxi-sharing program, etc. Under such schemes, it is envisioned that even though cars do have passengers, roads and consumers, they should be collectively selected by an insightful dispatcher.

This device has been studied using agent-based models and findings suggest that they are capable of meeting a substantial part of urban transportation demand.

Automation will allow these devices to become simpler and more versatile. Agent based modeling was used to research the effects of providing a fleet of autonomous cars in a region to satisfy one of their accessibility needs.

The actual normal modal share of car sharing was used to evaluate various operating scenarios in their own agent-based concept of a 'medium-sized area, maybe the size of Austin.' It was estimated that each automated car should substitute 11 traditional cars, but could induce 10 per cent more travel to meet the next passenger due for pick-up.

Using the same strategy, the International Transport Forum (ITF) planned to study the deployment of 100% autonomous taxi fleets to satisfy the need for transport in a specific region. A mid-size European city was designed (Lisbon in Portugal) where the only public transit mode retained in addition to the automatic taxi network is the metro system.

Results have shown that fleets are still declining: together with the metro, each automated automobile will eliminate 9 out of ten cars in the city if a fixed five-minute waiting time is assured, whilst without the metro, the figure remains at five vehicles removed per automated vehicle. The ITF has examined the concurrence between automated vehicles and traditional vehicles, although in this situation, the decrease in vehicle numbers isn't as important, with a potential increase if the metro network is indeed disabled, which indicates that issues may occur in the early stages of market launch.

Another study checked the replacement of all cars with autonomous cars for the city of Singapore. In this case, an empirical statistical model was used to determine the optimal fleet size limited to the optimal level of service to be offered to consumers (waiting period and the availability of cars) where they found that with 1/3 of the total amount of passenger vehicles presently in use, it will be feasible to satisfy the average personal mobility requirements of the entire population.

A different research utilized travel demand for New Jersey and it was found that the smart para-transit model tends to be commercially feasible, allowing a fleet capacity of 1.6 to 2.8 million six-passenger cars (lower than the existing system) to satisfy the state's travel demand in its entirety, at an expense to customers of $16.30 to $23.50 per person per day.

Due to a queuing theory applied to research the substitution of the taxi market in Manhattan with a fleet of autonomous cars, it was concluded that 8000 cars would be enough to meet the existent market (roughly 60% of the current fleet). The behavioral consequences of such a scheme are rarely explored in such models, as the sharing of cars with strangers appears to be an assumed disutility that is impossible to overcome.

There is no record of simulation work in the assessment of the versatility effect of automated conventional bus systems. Field studies continue to be carried out in many large-scale programs, which involve the measurement of public reaction.

Effects on the spatial level

Transport infrastructure is one of the variables that has influenced urban structures predominantly. It further played a crucial role in the growth and transition of the urban environment from the creation of the first community settlements where range work could be broken to the modern railway town and the comprehensive agglomerations after industrial output.

Three major town forms were defined based on prevalent transportation technology: the walking town (up to the 19th century), the transit (mid-19th to mid-20th century; medium density and concentrated mixed use), and the car town (mid-20th century to this day; small density and scattered, localized usage).

The next possible transportation revolutionary breakthrough seems to be autonomous vehicles. Are these the important consequences for the urban shape of this modern transport technology? Thus far, there has been no scientific research on this because the system is still in its infancy. However, potential mechanisms by which autonomous vehicles can affect the shape of the urban climate have been identified.

Changes in accessibility represent the process by which spatial effects at a regional level may arise from transport technologies and hence autonomous driving. Accessibility benefits come with four main components: property, individual, temporal, and transportation.

The aspect of land-use represents bid, demand, and the conflict between demand and supply. Transport aspects represent transportation futility, like travel costs, time, and expenses. The time aspect represents the existence of transient resources but also the allocation of time by individuals.

The human aspect represents the complexity of individual desires, expertise, and opportunities. Improvements in mobility attributed to developments in transport technologies have been primarily related to transportation components and travel speed adjustments. Speed enhancements also helped citizens to drive much faster under those budgets of travel time enabling towns to grow in tandem from 2.5 km to over 20 km in modern metropolitan agglomerations in the ancient Greek and Roman eras.

As far as automated cars are concerned, the impact of certain future drastic shifts on mobility, temporal and individual segments, on the urban scene would certainly be reduced by distance.

The transport aspect of accessibility will be influenced primarily by automated vehicles by rising transportation efforts, time, and costs. Travel activities would possibly be diminished as travel comforts, travel protection and efficiency are considerably improved, and travel time becomes more efficient. Due in large part to congestion delays and parking search time reductions arising from expanded availability and self-parking services, lower traffic times may be forecasted.

It may be possible to reduce operational costs as well. A more fuel-efficient autonomous car is predicted due to lighter cars (as a consequence of improved safety), fewer congestion delays, streamlined parking space search and driving behavior.

Moreover, the ability to access activities via shared automated cars for people who are unable to drive a vehicle (for example, people with disabilities or older people) can affect the individual accessibility component. Eventually, it’s feasible for autonomous cars, particularly with respect to the incentives (stores, open / close times), or with respect to people themselves (time availability), to move through certain places for activity purposes (e.g. pick up the children from school or pick up groceries from the market). Three potential geographical consequences on the urban environment can be described at a national level: latest phase of de-urbanization, major urban clusters being developed and the densification of main city centers.

People trade between commuting costs and lower rents or greater profits from their jobs according to the urban and regional economic location theory. Housing opportunities with limited exposure to work are also less appealing to individuals, and jobs that entail longer travel periods tend to cover them with higher wages.

Similarly, low-accessibility areas have a greater capacity for development and thus low real estate prices. The increase in mobility associated with the advent of autonomous cars could allow citizens to pay for lower travel costs in a farther location with more land and better living conditions.

The Increased connectivity might cause a de-urbanization surge in the city center for suburban residents. The extent of this new trend would rely on the degree of mobility, property quality and property use policies given by autonomous vehicles.

In the restricted sense of land use, for instance with growth constraints, substantial changes in mobility could contribute to a localized growth concentration in nearby smaller settlements rather than to a sprawled low-density production. Improved mobility linked to autonomous vehicles may also impact the role of new centers in the urban sense.

Progressively, the existing suburban housing, shopping, and community centers may become critical peripheral development points that meet the demand of new residents. The prospect of replenishing existing large car parking lots could further enhance mixed-use development prospects in such areas as electric vehicles will possibly park in distant peripheral locations.

For current urban centers, the growth capacity for infill is still strong, where parking facilities' costs are considerably higher because the space may be utilized for the purpose of housing, industries, other property, etc. These developments in real estate may then contribute to more dispersed urban centers.

In particular, land-use mobility models and connectivity position models may help analyze the possible spatial consequences of the introduction of autonomous vehicles on a national basis. These projections may be given by calculating accessibility across all areas of concern through metrics such as the universal usage of future accessibility.

It is critical, on the basis of recent empirical evidence on travel activity, to estimate possible accessibility parameters. So far, such scientific results do not occur, as technology for autonomous vehicles is still new. There is thus a complex ongoing mechanism which will change as the technology evolves to quantify behavioral parameters leading to generic transportation costs (e.g. the VTTS).

The experimental study of these improvements in travel behavior may involve longitudinal analytical testing methods incorporating both qualitative (such as scenario tests, in-depth interviews or focus groups) and quantitative strategies (e.g., specified preference experiments) over two immersive concurrent phases.

Additional sophisticated mobility placement models may also be used to analyze positions in an autonomous car transport environment. Such simulations can forecast the position of the housing system and of businesses by utilizing distinct models and measures of connectivity as well as other characteristics of potential destinations.

The implementation of autonomous cars may also have structural effects on a micro (neighborhood) scale (e.g. street design, building layout and land use) through two key mechanisms: a decrease in the number of parking spaces (on-street, off-street and surface) in metropolitan environments, and traffic safety and automatic road control.

Automated cars are supposed to drive to peripheral parking areas after leaving passengers, reducing the necessity of having parking spaces in urban regions (especially in work establishments and commercial locations). In addition, the possible implementation of automated automobile sharing schemes could lead urban residents to live vehicle-free or reduce the number of vehicles they own, and as a consequence, limit the amount of parking lots required in residential buildings.

On-street parking spaces should be removed in both cases involving a mixture of autonomous electric vehicles and public transit. They should also dramatically decrease when combined with the usage of traditional vehicles.

Elimination of on-street parking will make it easier to turn parking lanes into additional transportation areas (e.g. bus lanes, high-capacity automobile lanes, bike lanes, etc.) or open public facilities (e.g. parks, green fields, or larger sidewalks). Reducing off-street parking may contribute to improvements in land use (i.e. residential or industrial development), property design (i.e. entry roads, landscaping) and availability of housing, because construction costs will be smaller. The removal of parking garages and surface parking lots in high-value land areas will boost infill growth, thus alleviating both esthetic deterioration and other significant environmental issues, such as the heat island impact.

Automated cars are expected to maneuver highways accurately by identifying path lines, route limits, spatial configuration and the various features of road conditions and road signs. Automated cars will likely manage to drive on their own even in road conditions without speed limits or in unstructured settings.

In addition, V2V and V2I communications, together with advanced vehicle precision sensing and control, could enable multi-agent control systems to handle intersections, rendering conventional traffic lights and signals redundant. The redesign capacity of both automated vehicle motion stability and automatic intersection control is important.

Road lanes may be widened, creating extra capacity that could be used as increased mobility or a stationary area. In fact, some elements of the road architecture should be reconsidered, such as plain vision triangles, car tracks, traffic signals and signage, etc. The manner in which autonomous vehicles and cyclists or pedestrians communicate (e.g. through voice or sensors) is often important to the design of road junctions.

Strong coordination between traffic builders, construction developers, community planners, architects and community designers would make it easier to achieve the best use of property, building reconstruction and streetscape capacity arising from improvements in car automation. The transition of quality requirements is expected to be a gradual, steady phase that must develop in accordance with the technical advancement of autonomous vehicles. Architecture scenario experiments involving a number of experts may also help to recognize new threats to healthier and more sustainable streets.