Autonomous vehicles (AVs) are rapidly emerging in United States cities, leaving urban and regional planning institutions unsure how to plan and develop policies. This paper analyzes how regional transportation plans (RTPs) developed by metropolitan planning organizations (MPOs) are approaching the risks and opportunities presented by AVs. Among 52 MPOs, a majority only mention key issues and emphasize high levels of uncertainty. Twelve MPOs develop policies on infrastructure, safety, partnerships, data-sharing, and multimodal transportation. Despite a positive trend, many recently adopted RTPs do not incorporate AVs. To plan for uncertain mobility futures, MPOs must develop more flexible approaches to long-term infrastructure investment.

Pilot projects have emerged in cities globally as a way to experiment with the utilization of a suite of smart mobility and emerging transportation technologies. Automated vehicles (AVs) have become central tools for such projects as city governments and industry explore the use and impact of this emerging technology. This paper presents a large-scale assessment of AV pilot projects in U.S. cities to understand how pilot projects are being used to examine the risks and benefits of AVs, how cities integrate these potentially transformative technologies into conventional policy and planning, and how and what they are learning about this technology and its future opportunities and risks. Through interviews with planning practitioners and document analysis, we demonstrate that the approaches cities take for AVs differ significantly, and often lack coherent policy goals. Key findings from this research include: (1) a disconnect between the goals of the pilot projects and a city’s transportation goals; (2) cities generally lack a long-term vision for how AVs fit into future mobility systems and how they might help address transportation goals; (3) an overemphasis of non-transportation benefits of AV pilots projects; (4) AV pilot projects exhibit a lack of policy learning and iteration; and (5) cities are not leveraging pilot projects for public benefits. Overall, urban and transportation planners and decision makers show a clear interest to discover how AVs can be used to address transportation challenges in their communities, but our research shows that while AV pilot projects purport to do this, while having numerous outcomes, they have limited value for informing transportation policy and planning questions around AVs. We also find that AV pilot projects, as presently structured, may constrain planners’ ability to re-think transportation systems within the context of rapid technological change.

The need to develop cities that meet the needs of children is vital. As neighborhoods become more important to the goal of urban sustainability, they must consider the developmental needs of children by allowing them to independently access places, to socialize, and learn from the built environment. Existing assessment tools are less relevant to sprawling cities typical in the U.S. are overly complex, and lack a neighborhood focus. In this paper, we develop a child friendly neighborhood assessment tool for use by urban planners and policymakers. We conduct a small-scale pilot in four neighborhoods in Glendale, Arizona and find that each neighborhood is deficient in multiple dimensions. We then assess the performance and limitations of the assessment tool and suggest ways to improve it in future iterations. Lastly, we discuss how urban planners can utilize the tool and how it connects to policies for creating more child-friendly and sustainable neighborhoods.

Cargo bikes have been proposed as a personal mobility solution to reduce car use. For many, private cargo bike ownership is not feasible due to cost and storage requirements – thus there is increasing interest in cargo bike sharing. However, a lack of knowledge about cargo bike sharing systems and the infrastructure needed reduces the potential reach of such innovative mobility offerings. Infrastructure is both physical ‘hard’ infrastructure (bike lanes, parking, etc.), as well as the ‘soft’ infrastructure (e.g. apps, training, attitudes, etc.) needed to support shared mobility systems. In May 2025, bike workshops were held in Gothenburg, Sweden, in partnership with Metvibee, an urban design app that uses augmented reality to facilitate public participation. In this paper, I present findings from these workshops on participant experiences and quantify perceived safety and comfort of bike infrastructure in Gothenburg for cargo bikes. Findings show that the types of bikes and how easy they are to use are at least as important as safety and comfort aspects of protected bike lanes.