Hypercongestion, autonomous vehicle, and urban spatial structure

TL;DR

This paper explores how hypercongestion mitigation and autonomous vehicles influence urban spatial structure, revealing complex interactions that can lead to less dense cities and outward expansion, contrasting with traditional models.

Contribution

It develops a land use model incorporating hypercongestion and autonomous vehicles, highlighting their combined effects on urban density and spatial expansion.

Findings

Perimeter control reduces short-term commuting costs.

Hypercongestion mitigation leads to less dense urban structures.

Autonomous vehicles can increase commuting costs in hypercongested cities.

Abstract

This paper examines the effects of hypercongestion mitigation by perimeter control and the introduction of autonomous vehicles on the spatial structures of cities. By incorporating a bathtub model, we develop a land use model where hypercongestion occurs in the downtown area and interacts with land use. We show that hypercongestion mitigation by perimeter control decreases the commuting cost in the short-run and results in a less dense urban spatial structure in the long-run. Furthermore, we reveal that the impact of autonomous vehicles depends on the presence of hypercongestion. Introduction of autonomous vehicles may increase the commuting cost in the presence of hypercongestion and cause a decrease in suburban population, but make cities spatially expanded outward.This result contradicts that of the standard bottleneck model. When perimeter control is implemented, the introduction of autonomous vehicles decreases the commuting cost and results in a less dense urban spatial structure. These results show that hypercongestion is a key factor that can change urban spatial structures.