Autonomous vehicles are believed to change the way we will perceive travel time as the car would no longer be driven by a person, enabling other activities to be performed during the time normally used for controlling the vehicle. Especially for private car commuting, scholars suggest that the value of travel time would decrease substantially due to the possibility to work during the car ride. Travel distance might increase in return, as time used during commuting will not be perceived as time lost. This could lead to the preference of living in rural areas, where land prices and rents are typically lower, and, ultimately, to urban sprawl. By looking at the jobs and mobility characteristics of the Swiss population, we argue that only a small percentage of the total population would actually benefit from active use of travel time during commuting, taking away the fear of urban sprawl through automated vehicles.

Cities are estimated to have a 70% contribution to global greenhouse gas emissions. This makes urban sustainability monitoring necessary, but are urban sustainability monitoring frameworks applicable to cities of all sizes? And do they offer a consistent overview of the sustainability status of core urban development areas, such as transport? The present research tests if the specific needs of small and medium-sized Norwegian cities, as perceived by local stakeholders, are consistently covered by the indicators of urban sustainability monitoring frameworks. To this purpose, four international frameworks were evaluated in the frame of a workshop: Reference Framework for Sustainable Cities, Key Performance Indicators for Smart Sustainable Cities, ISO 37120:2018 Sustainable cities and communities Indicators for city services and quality of life, and LEED for Cities (pilot phase). The evaluation was done by local and regional representatives of academia, the private sector, and public authorities with expertise in urban planning. A set of dedicated transport indicators was also evaluated. The results highlight the alignment between urban and transport sustainability indicators and the perceived needs of Norwegian small and medium-sized cities. These results pave the road for urban sustainability monitoring frameworks to better shape their tools towards the needs of small and medium-sized cities.

The mobility system is undergoing a paradigm shift from fossil fuel-based mobility towards carbon neutrality and greater energy efficiency. Yet this transformation is still in its infancy. In order to reach the CO2 target defined by the Paris Agreement, an increased use of sharing and electric vehicles is suggested. While many scholars have already investigated the factors relevant for promoting the use of sharing or electric vehicles, less is known about the interplay between experience with carsharing and future car buying decisions. We thus adopted a stated choice survey with 995 participants randomly drawn from the German and French-speaking population of Switzerland to test the drivetrain purchase preferences of users with and without carsharing experience. Results suggest that carsharing users are two times more likely to buy an electric-drive vehicle, i.e. battery electric, plug-in hybrid or hybrid electric vehicle, compared to non-carsharing users, even after controlling for socio-demographics, mobility characteristics, values and pro-environmental attitudes.