Autonomous vehicles: The next jump in accessibilities?

Autonomous vehicles are expected to offer a higher comfort of traveling at lower prices and at the same time to increase road capacity - a pattern recalling the rise of the private car and later of motorway construction. Using the Swiss national transport model, this research simulates the impact of autonomous vehicles on accessibility of the Swiss municipalities. The results show that autonomous vehicles could cause another quantum leap in accessibility. Moreover, the spatial distribution of the accessibility impacts implies that autonomous vehicles favor urban sprawl and may render public transport superfluous except for dense urban areas. (C) 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.