Walkable City Rules: Don’t Expand City Streets for Self-Driving Cars

In an AV future, each city street would ideally be allocated a limited number of driving lanes, no more than currently present. Only in this way will our downtowns remain welcoming to more than just cars. Moreover, cheap automobiles were the principal enabler of suburban sprawl. As autonomy makes it even cheaper to access far-flung locations, there is danger of a second wave of exurban dislocation. Cities that wish to avoid the long-term balance-sheet burden represented by low-density suburbia must double-down on efforts to promote "smart growth," which mostly means eliminating all hidden subsidies for sprawl.

By Jeff Speck

https://usa.streetsblog.org/2018/10/03/walkable-city-rules-dont-expand-city-streets-for-self-driving-cars/