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Last time, I mentioned autonomous vehicles (AVs) in a discussion about the future of transit systems. A number of articles and conferences have fostered a debate about their impact on the transportation world, but their potential impact on land use has gotten less attention.

on the probable impacts of driverless cars brings out some interesting thoughts on that subject. The author spends much of the article speculating on their impact on the dominant feature of the American metropolis 鈥� the endless strips of auto-oriented commercial businesses.

It has long been apparent that these mind-numbing streetscapes have had a serious detrimental effect on the physical and mental health of residents and their sense of community, created long-term environmental issues and cost our communities dearly because of infrastructure being overbuilt. The eventual conversion of these streetscapes has long been a concern for planners, and AVs will probably accelerate it.

But what will replace them? Whatever use is made of this land, and whatever shape it takes, the goal should be to plan around the needs of people, and make the transportation system (including automobiles) serve those needs. Many of these boulevards could become mixes of residential and commercial uses, with more intense development around key intersections with high-capacity transit stops. Most of these redeveloped areas would have to be more internally focused since the scale of the main streets make them unfriendly to people.

AVs could become not only major drivers of this conversion, but also help shape this new urban landscape. They have the potential to become especially valuable for local trips unsuitable by foot or bike and 鈥渇irst mile/last mile鈥� connections to regional transit. This will be a long-term change, but the planning for it needs to be happening now.