City dwellers committed to public transport, but ambivalent about robotaxis - poll
January 27, 2026
Pan-European polling shows need for proactive regulation to make sure robotaxis complement public transport.
The first pan-European polling of its kind has found resounding support for public transport, but shows city dwellers haven’t yet made up their minds about autonomous vehicles, whose arrival in cities across the continent this year could set off a commercial fight for survival.
The representative OpinionWay survey [1] for the non-profit Clean Cities found that four out of five (83%) adults across nine European capitals support more and better tram, metro and rail services, and better connections to the suburbs. City dwellers are largely split over the arrival of autonomous vehicles, with slightly more support (37%) than opposition (35%) and a large group that is undecided (28%). Alongside Madrid, opposition is joint strongest (38%) in London, the first European city [2] set to get robotaxis from this spring. Support is strongest in Paris (41%) and Sofia (48%).
Public opinion matters because elected mayors across Europe are under pressure to quickly decide if, where and how robotaxis should operate. Cities have been a bridgehead location and essential proving ground for the technology in the US and China. Their lower cost could draw passengers away from the most profitable bus, rail and tram routes and add to congestion. But they could also help cash-strapped transport departments plug service gaps, driver shortages and meet a sustained rise in demand for public transport.
The Clean Cities polling found considerable support among those living in city centres (40% vs 34% in suburbs), suggesting robotaxis could quickly be embraced in transport hotspots. Half of those taking robotaxis in China told researchers in 2021 that they used to walk, bike or take public transport. Elsewhere, small, relatively new robofleets have given researchers limited clarity on their competitive and congestion consequences, but do suggest that change could be momentous and regulators play a decisive role [3].
Vienna, London and Hamburg are among the few European cities to publish basic policies or run experiments with autonomous vehicles. Rules should be set in all cities to avoid gridlock, NGOs say.
Clean Cities senior campaign director, Barbara Stoll, said:
“The stakes are high and time is short. To avoid Chinese and Silicon Valley tech firms turning city streets into a new Wild West, mayors must quickly put on the sheriff badge and set some rules of the road. The initially unregulated e-scooter chaos cities went through is a comparable lesson in what can happen when useful new technology is allowed to take over the streets. Mayors need to steer robotaxis so they become a force for good, complementing rather than competing with public transport. What is clear from our polling is that the public will support that direction.”
Clean Cities, which launched five years ago with another pan-European poll, is Europe’s largest network of non-profit organisations promoting active, shared and electric mobility in cities.
Other notable findings from the Clean Cities polling were:
- Surprisingly high (nearly two thirds, 63%) support for converting some car lanes on major roads into bus or tram lanes if it helps make public transport faster and more reliable. Even car owners are mostly (61%) in favour.
- Distinct age and gender divides over support for autonomous vehicles, with significantly more men showing enthusiasm than women (43% vs 32%), and exactly half of all young adults aged between 25 and 34 in favour, 18 points more than those aged between 45 and 64.
- Some of the widest support (52%) for autonomous vehicles is among those with primary school age children, which might be driven by concerns over road safety hazards of human-driven cars and their interest in replacing accompanied car journeys with robotaxi trips
- Those identifying as very conservative are also more frequently in favour of autonomous vehicles (53%), contrasting with just 29% for strong left-wingers.
Clean Cities will host mayors, industry and researchers at a conference in Brussels on 24 March to try to advance urban policy towards autonomous vehicles.
Notes to editors
[1] In November 2025, 8,418 adults from nine European capitals completed identical questions, forming a representative sample of entire populations of Berlin, Brussels, Budapest, London, Rome, Madrid, Paris, Sofia and Warsaw. Cities were selected from Western, Central / Eastern and Southern Europe to capture broad European views. International transport polls of city residents are rare and none have examined both autonomous vehicles with public transport, according to Clean Cities. The last comparable European polling was in 2019.
[2] In 2026, European cities are set to become hubs for autonomous mobility, with London leading the way through the launch of Waymo’s all-electric Jaguar I-PACE commercial service and high-level trials from partners like Uber and Wayve as well as Baidu. Meanwhile, Hamburg is testing its ride-pooling with plans for large-scale driverless operations, and Zurich is introducing Baidu’s “AmiGo” service to bridge mobility gaps in areas underserved by traditional transit.
[3] There is limited data on how robotaxis are affecting congestion, though there is anecdotal evidence of mysterious hold-ups and even a city-wide shutdown. Perhaps the most authoritative modelling predicts that robotaxis could tempt most drivers out of private vehicles, but at the risk of creating much worse congestion in peak hours, depending on how open passengers are to sharing. Modelling suggests robotaxis could take between 7 and 80% of the public transport market, with regulatory frameworks a strong determining factor.
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