Brookings

The gig economy has been growing fast in the U.S., with the nonemployer “ride and room” sharing industries making up a significant share of the growth, especially in the country’s largest metro areas.

From 2000 to 2008, there was a shift in the geography of poverty in the U.S. from urban areas to the suburbs surrounding major metro areas.

U.S. Census estimates through 2017 indicate a revival of suburbanization and migration towards metro areas in the middle of the country.

Two fatalities involving autonomous vehicles (AVs) have raised the prominence of safety concerns within AV testing. Many states have considered or enacted regulations on AV testing, while availability of data collected on testing remains difficult to access.

“While most big cities are still gaining population, the rates of that gain are falling off for many of them as the nation’s population shows signs of broad dispersal.”

Local governments, municipal planning organizations, and transit agencies are understandably circumspect in their actions to regulate autonomous vehicles. Policymakers must strike a delicate balance between crafting forward-thinking regulations and being so quick-to-act that decisions are rendered obsolete by the changing marketplace. In this case, however, it is crucial that metropolitan actors do not fall behind the wave of technological progress—now is the moment to envision their ideal land use and transportation scenarios.