Abstract
Autonomous vehicles (AVs) may significantly impact people’s choice of residential locations and spatial structures. The impact may vary across different countries, but few studies have focused on it. This study drew on China and the United States (US) as two cases to study car drivers’ knowledge of AVs and willingness to move farther if AVs were available by estimating ordered logistic regression models. The results showed that 42.3% of Chinese and 29.8% of US respondents were likely to consider moving farther away from the nearest city or the destination for the most frequent trip if they had an AV. The Chinese sample had less knowledge of AVs than the US sample, but they were more likely to consider a move. AVs may lead to a new round of urban sprawl, but the challenge may be greater for China. We captured the socio-economic and transport factors that affected this result.
Highlights
Recent technological advances in the field of autonomous vehicles indicate that such vehicles will be available to consumers in the foreseeable future
This paper explores the potential effects of autonomous vehicles (AVs) in China and the United States (US) through a comparative analysis; in addition to other differences, these countries represent ones that are developing and developed, respectively
AVs were available, as well as the factors that might affect knowledge and willingness to relocate. This unique comparative analysis makes three significant contributions to the knowledge around people’s attitudes toward AVs and the potential effects the technology may have on spatial structure
Summary
Some researchers argue that AVs will lead to significant influences on transportation, just as the widespread adoption of the automobile did in decades past, affecting individuals’ travel behaviors, the overall development of the transportation system, urban development, and national strategies and policies [4,5,6,7]. Transportation and land use patterns in urban areas are closely related to each other [8,9,10]. Should autonomous transportation modes affect transportation patterns, they have the potential to influence when households and businesses make mobility decisions and, to a considerable degree, land-use and urban planning [4]. As a result, considering the novel travel mode choices, we focus on the potential effects that AVs may have on urban spatial structure, land use, and individuals’
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