CAV Readiness Inputs.xlsx

Connected Autonomous Vehicles (CAVs) are about to hit the roads but an important question is how ready are cities in terms of policies and infrastructure elements required to accommodate CAVs? By developing a holistic index for evaluating readiness for CAVs, this paper establishes the foundation for readiness analysis. The index ranks the readiness of cities based on their soft and cyber infrastructure, pro-CAV policies, hard infrastructure, and other transportation supply and demand measures. We first identify 29 variables that can plausibly foster CAV market penetration. The variables are then combined to develop a single index. In doing so we use two scoring schemes, namely simple and compound schemes. 98 most populated cities of the Contiguous US are ranked, readiest and least-ready cities are introduced, and the results are discussed. By and large, we find that most ranked cities are not ready to welcome CAVs. We find that large cities are currently more prepared than small- and medium-sized cities. However, smaller cities have the potential to become ready even sooner than some large cities if appropriate infrastructure investments are made. We further offer urban planning implications and broader insights that could be of interest to other cities and countries.