Assessing the Impacts of Autonomous Vehicles on Urban Sprawl
Round 1
Reviewer 1 Report
Comments and Suggestions for AuthorsThis article is an evaluation of the impact of autonomous vehicles on urban sprawl.
1) The evaluation method used by the authors is a survey, and the survey target is adult Australians. As mentioned in reference [33], the structural change of urban space is highly influenced by the country or region. Therefore, for a clear evaluation, it is necessary to analyze the results by reflecting the geographical characteristics of the surveyed area. Thus, it is recommended to analyze the results by reflecting the geographical characteristics of the area.
2) The survey method is limited in predicting and evaluating the phenomenon of urban sprawl due to autonomous vehicles. We recommend comparing and analyzing the survey results with the impact of changes in the transportation environment such as railways and roads on urban sprawl.
3) The author presented the survey results in the form of a table, but a graph would be more understandable.
4) The numbers and terms in Table 4. need more explanation.
5) Most of the respondents (84%) answered "stay in the same area". However, the reasons for "stay" should also be analyzed. The author only analyses the reasons for "move".
6) The conditions of the survey should be equitable. However, the respondents' residence is relatively concentrated in “suburban” areas. This may have an impact on the survey results.
7) A positive attitude towards autonomous Vehicles may affect the results of the responses. Therefore, it is necessary to analyze the results according to "positive attitude to AVs".
Author Response
Please find attached the revisions letter outlining the changes that were made to the manuscript.
Author Response File: 
Author Response.pdf
Reviewer 2 Report
Comments and Suggestions for AuthorsThe paper deals with a topic that is worth of investigation and it’s in line with the scope of the journal. However, I think there are some major and minor improvements to be addressed before considering it as acceptable for publication in the Sustainability journal. Particularly, I recommend reconsidering it after that the following revisions would be accomplished:
1) Please insert reference to case study in the title
2) The authors choose and “all-in-one” Introduction/state of art section (i.e. section 1), therefore I would suggest expanding it, also setting a wider scientific scene on Avs impacts (the scie. Particularly, I would suggest reviewing and including as reference https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cstp.2023.101112 to link the potential sprawl phenomenon to the acceptance of Avs, but also including other relevant references such as https://doi.org/10.1080/10630732.2018.1493883 or https://doi.org/10.1016/j.trd.2020.102291 . Please do not limit to suggested references.
3) Line 100 “This paper is part of larger project examining the potential public health consequences of autonomous vehicles”: is this information necessary?
4) Please include the full questionnaire as appendix
5) For sake of readability, please embed all the Tables in the text
6) Table 1: please include a comparison with the (Australian) population
7) Table 4 (i..e modelling results): please include modelling statistics (loglikelihood (initial and final)? Rho squared?)
8) Please describe in the methodological section the modelling specification including the description of the variables used (e.g. continuous, ordinal, dummies, etc.)
9) Did you test other (more complex) specifications? (e.g. assuming random parameters)
10) I would suggest two separate Discussion and Conclusion sections. Moreover, I would suggest expanding the discussion and make some more results comparison with the current literature (even though referred to other case studies)
Author Response
Please find attached the revisions letter outlining the changes that were made to the manuscript.
Author Response File: Author Response.pdf
Round 2
Reviewer 1 Report
Comments and Suggestions for AuthorsThis revised version addresses most of the comments from the last review.
1) The article would be more complete if the analysis of the results reflecting the geographical characteristics of the region and the analysis of the positive attitude towards autonomous vehicles were described together with the expected results of the analysis rather than simply suggesting further research.
2) (Figure 2) A pie chart would be more effective to express the proportions of the survey results.
3) There is nothing further written about the suburban concentration of respondents mentioned in the last review. If a respondent's current residence has no effect on the survey results, I would recommend explaining why.
Author Response
Please see attached revisions letter.
Author Response File: Author Response.pdf
Reviewer 2 Report
Comments and Suggestions for AuthorsNo further suggestions. I think the manuscript could be published in its current form in Sustainability Journal
Author Response
Please see attached revisions letter.
Author Response File: Author Response.pdf
