Cities must plan now for budget challenges from autonomous vehicles, increased e-commerce

August 24, 2017

Urbanism Next

City leaders must plan for the future now if they want a voice in what autonomous vehicles (AVs) and e-commerce will do to their cities and how their impact could create a “potential rat’s nest of a budgeting challenge.” Urbanism Next, a collaborative research project sponsored by the UO, explored a secondary effect of AVs and e-commerce: the impacts on local government budgets. The report scrutinizes typical revenues and expenditures for cities and considers what could happen as AVs become common and e-commerce takes on an even larger role. This transformation will affect many aspects of civic life, from changing tax revenue sources to job losses from taxi drivers to retail workers.

Read the report