Transportation Commons^™

Rules Of The Road: Toward National Regulation Of Autonomous Vehicles, Adam Raviv

Journal of Law and Mobility

After decades of promise, self-driving cars are now becoming a meaningful reality on our roads. Yet not a single federal law or regulation governs autonomous vehicle operation in the United States—despite widespread agreement among policymakers, advocates, and industry stakeholders that a national safety framework is necessary. This article provides the first comprehensive legal analysis of what a federal safety regulation for autonomous vehicles can and should look like. It describes the current landscape of autonomous technology. It analyzes both the existing federal legal regime for vehicle safety regulation as well as state, local, and international standards that apply to autonomous …

Accounting For Spatial Effects And Social Norms In Making Algorithmic Law: Insights From And Applications In Urban Mobility, Jingkang Gao

Journal of Law and Mobility

This Article examines a prominent idea in the law and technology literature: that algorithms and big data can be used to make law dynamic and personalized. As currently envisioned by legal scholars, “algorithmic law” entails laws that adjust in real time to changing conditions and vary across individuals, improving welfare by tailoring legal rules and standards to personal characteristics.

This Article argues that this vision of algorithmic law is incomplete—and often counterproductive. Existing proposals treat personalization as a function of individual attributes alone, overlooking the fact that effects of individual behavior are fundamentally interactive. Individual behavior is shaped by spatial …

Beyond Congestion Pricing, Gregory H. Shill

Journal of Law and Mobility

After years of political and legal efforts to block it, congestion pricing finally went into effect in New York City in January 2025. Early indications are positive, though threats to its continuation from the Trump administration and others remain. But its journey to this point has already made one thing clear: it is time for the Big Apple to seize more of its own destiny in transportation policy.

The battles that delayed and still imperil the Metropolitan Transportation Authority’s congestion pricing scheme underscore the need for policies that New York City can implement unilaterally. Making urban transportation policy in the …

Neighborliness Vs. Car Culture: Traffic Violence, Pedestrian Deaths In Philadelphia, And Vision Zero's Concept Of Equity, Regina Austin

Journal of Law and Mobility

Vision Zero (VZ) is a transportation policy adopted by major cities like Philadelphia that aims to reduce or eliminate traffic violence, primarily through improvements in the transportation infrastructure. VZ prioritizes engineering (over enforcement), community engagement, and perhaps most importantly, equity. In the battle for superiority among users of land-based travel modes in America, automobile drivers have benefited from arterial highways that speed traffic flows around and through urban enclaves to reach center city business districts and from a car culture that encourages dominant behavior behind the wheel. Pedestrians have been among the losers.

In Philadelphia, as elsewhere, pedestrians who are …

Setting The Agenda: The Legal And Historical Context To Best Understand How Transportation Technology Might Be Regulated To Combat Forced Labor, Brittany Eastman

Journal of Law and Mobility

Transportation is a piece of all human activity. As individuals and as a society, the logistics of getting people and goods from one place to another is a question we answer countless times a day. Just today, billions of people drove to work, took the bus to school, used a rideshare to get to the store, or took the train into the city to enjoy an evening out on the town. This list does not even consider all the items people have ordered online which will be shipped and delivered to homes. Even more exciting is the innovation that inspired …

Contracting Tools For Transportation Data, Suzanne Bell, Olivia Dworkin

Journal of Law and Mobility

Troves of transportation data can be, and are, produced by smart infrastructure. Municipalities collect various kinds of transportation data, including traffic information such as accidents, flows, and volumes; bicycle information such as bike counts; pedestrian information such as pedestrian counts; smart bus stop information; street mapping information; location information for traffic signals; mapping details such as the miles of city streets; and information on roadwork and infrastructure planning such as construction or road closures expected to affect traffic.

Governments, educational institutions, non-profit enterprises, and businesses find transportation data useful for purposes such as improving infrastructure, reducing traffic congestion, improving vehicle …

Opportunities And Challenges For Deploying Connected And Automated Vehicles To Address Transportation Disparities In Urban Areas, Erika Shepard, Kimberly Napoline, Frank Douma, Adeel Lari

Journal of Law and Mobility

As the development and testing of connected and automated vehicles (CAV) accelerates, it is important for government stakeholders, planners, and policymakers to have a better understanding of the challenges and opportunities CAVs will bring to infrastructure, communities, and lifestyles. There is general consensus among scholars and transportation practitioners that CAV will “disrupt” transportation systems, land use patterns, and socioeconomic power structures as they exist today.The implications of CAV on transportation infrastructure have been the subject of numerous academic and professional studies, suggesting both positive and negative effects may occur. Furthermore, in an American context, transportation planning has historically contributed to …

Municipal Corporations - Validity Of Covenant To Maintain Parking Meters In Bond Issue To Finance Off-Street Parking Facilities, William G. Cloon, Jr. S.Ed.

Michigan Law Review

An act of the state legislature authorized the issuance of municipal bonds to finance off-street parking facilities. The city was authorized to pledge revenue from existing on-street parking facilities to service the bonds but was to retain the right to change the location of the parking meters and other on-street facilities for enumerated reasons so long as the change did not materially lessen the revenue to be derived from those facilities. Acting in pursuance of authority granted by the enabling act, the city covenanted to maintain its parking meters subject to the reservations required by the act. In an action …

Recent Important Decisions, Michigan Law Review

Michigan Law Review

Admiralty - Workmen's Compensation - Is a Hydroplane a Vessel? - Claimant was employed in the care and management of a hydroplane which was moored in navigable waters. The hydroplane began to drag anchor and drift toward the beach, where it was in danger of being wrecked. Claimant waded into the water and was struck by the propeller. Held, claimant is not entitled to compensation under the Workmen's Compensation Law, since a hydroplane while on navigable waters is a vessel, and therefore the jurisdiction of the admiralty excludes that of the State Industrial Commission. Reinhardt v. Newport Flying Service Corp. …

Recent Important Decisions

Michigan Law Review

A collection of recent important court decisions.

Recent Important Decisions, Michigan Law Review

Michigan Law Review

Acknowledgement--Use of "He" Instead of "They"; Adverse Possession--Easement--License--Legal Maxim; Attachment--Conflict of Jurisdictoin--State and Federal Courts; Bills and Notes--Negotiability of Overdue Note; Bills and Notes--Presentment; Common Carriers--Fellow Servant Rule--Departmental Doctrine; Conspiracy--Recovery Against One Alone; Constitutional Law--County Taxes--Statutory Limitation--Impairment of Contracts; Constitutional Law--Search And Seizure--Due Process of Law; Constitutional Law--Sunday Law--Obligatory on Hebrews; Contracts to make a Particular Disposition of Property at Death--Specific Performance; Corporations--Banks and Banking--Negligence of Directors--Liability for Deceit--Liability to Creditors; Corporations--Issue of Convertible Bonds--Increase of Capital Stock--Preemptive Right of Stockholders; Covenants--Technical and Substantial Breach; Deeds--Condition Subsequent--Agreement to Support; Divorce--Alimony--Decree--Monion to Vacate; Dower--Rights of Divorced Wife; Eminent Domain--Telephone Poles in …