Current research suggests there is a huge uncertainty as to whether automated vehicle development will improve or exacerbate congestion, sprawl, and inequitable access to travel. Likely, the outcome will be determined by the policies governments adopt to guide development. As such, the goal of this paper is to examine the legal capacity, bureaucratic willingness and capacity, and political willingness and capacity of regulating automated vehicle regulatory development in Toronto, Canada.

Firstly, the government needs legal capacity to regulate in a given area. The remaining four elements all relate to human resources. Interviews show Toronto’s bureaucrats believe they have a responsibility and ability to craft effective and ambitious regulations that advance the city’s goals. These willing civil servants need the time and the expertise to design good policy, and the Toronto government has an AV working group that provides a forum for such a discussion. To see regulations enacted effectively, however, the mayor and council must not only support rules eventually proposed by the working group; they may also need to approach the provincial government to convince them to craft their own complementary AV legislation.

Should policymakers want to see bold and effective regulation enacted at the local level to address the harms that might arise from AV development and guide private- sector business operations to foster equitable and sustainable planning outcomes, they must look at whether their colleagues and the politicians under whom they serve have the willingness, and ability, to propose such rules.