The Impacts of Autonomous Vehicles and E-Commerce on Local Government Budgeting and Finance

Abstract

SCI's Urbanism Next initiative focuses on how advances in technology such as the advent of autonomous vehicles (AV's), the rise of E-commerce, and the proliferation of the sharing economy are having profound effects not only on how we live, move, and spend our time in cities, but also increasingly on urban form and development itself. Through a multidisciplinary approach, this research initiative gathers the latest thinking on the state and trajectories of these technologies, analyzes the potential implications for urban form and development, and projects how these changes should affect current design, planning, and development decisions. While substantial research on the technological aspects of autonomous vehicles and systems themselves exists, the Urbanism Next Research Initiative is focused on addressing the shortage of systematic exploration on their secondary effects on city development, form, and design, with implications for sustainability, resiliency, equity, cost, and general livability.

How Will Autonomous Vehicles Change Local Government Budgeting and Finance? Case Studies of On-Street Parking, Curb Management, and Solid Waste Collection

“…There has been little work to date that has investigated the budgetary impacts of AVs or TNCs on municipal budgeting and finance. Clark, Larco, and Mann (2017) provide some of the first explorations of the topic by providing an overview of AV impacts across a city budget. However, this study proposed directional impact and did not quantify the magnitude of these impacts.…”

“…Personal transportation, discussed in the previous two sections of this report, is expected to be dramatically transformed in the coming years. Little attention, however, has been paid to how AVs will transform service delivery (beyond food delivery), and particularly on local government (Clark, Larco, and Mann 2017;Clark and Lewis 2018). This section of the report works to expand upon a largely ignored topic, the impact of AVs on municipal finance and budgeting.…”

Autonomous, Connected, Electric Shared Vehicles (ACES) and Public Finance: An Explorative Analysis

“…ACES might affect the costs of road infrastructure maintenance and construction. A higher number of VKT (due to induced demand) is generally associated with higher costs for road maintenance (Clark et al, 2017). In terms of construction, ACES may require less costly safety features such a road shoulders and traffic signs, as well as lower investments in noise protection measures due to electric engines being quieter than fuel combustion engines (Silberg et al, 2012;Fagnant and Kockelman, 2014).…”

“…The relationship between ACES and public finance is recommended as a subject for further study by the European Commission Joint Research Center (Alonso Raposo et al, 2018, p.151). The topic is briefly discussed in a handful of policy papers (Clark et al, 2017;Peterson and Lewis, 2017;Mares et al, 2018) as well as newspaper articles (e.g. Fung, 2016), but to our knowledge has not received attention in academia.…”

How Will Autonomous Vehicles Change Local Government Budgeting and Finance? Case Studies of On-Street Parking, Curb Management, and Solid Waste Collection

“…Introduction to Section 3 Personal transportation, discussed in the previous two sections of this report, is expected to be dramatically transformed in the coming years. Little attention, however, has been paid to how AVs will transform service delivery (beyond food delivery), and particularly on local government (Clark, Larco, and Mann 2017;Clark and Lewis 2018). This section of the report works to expand upon a largely ignored topic, the impact of AVs on municipal finance and budgeting.…”