Automobile-orientation

Bike enthusiasts argue that bikesharing programs can be an important element of sustainable mobility planning in the urban cores of large metropolitan areas. However, the objective longterm impact of bikesharing on reducing auto-dependence is not well-examined, as prior studies have tended to rely on self-reported subjective mode substitution effects. We use a unique longitudinal dataset containing millions of geo-referenced vehicle registrations and odometer readings in Massachusetts over a six-year period - the Massachusetts Vehicle Census - to examine the causal impact of bikesharing on various metrics of auto-dependence in the inner core of Metro Boston.

Many studies have noted that denser and more accessible environments with higher level-of-service (LOS) tend to encourage higher levels of walking and bicycling activity. As streets are increasingly designed to facilitate safe cycling through built environment interventions, little has been done to evaluate perceptions of safety on different typologies, particularly one vs. two-way corridors. Theory would suggest that many individuals frame their commutes based in-part on the perceived safety of the environment, yet little research looks at varying street design and this perception. This study uses a moving camera approach to evaluate the perceived cycling comfort for drivers and cyclists on different roadway designs (multi-lane, one way; two-way, bidirectional street; single-lane, one-way).

Automobile-dependent planning has changed automobiles from a luxury into a necessity. Excessive vehicle costs leave many households without money to purchase essential food, shelter and healthcare. They need more affordable transportation options.

Whim is an app service that consolidates transportation services into a monthly subscription. The app includes access to taxis, public transportation, and rental cars. The app's goal is to reduce vehicle ownership by offering convenient access to multiple alternatives.

Re-allocating space on streets to accommodate new uses – particularly for walking, biking, and being – is not new. COVID-era needs have accelerated the process that many communities use to make such street transitions, however. Many communities quickly understood that the street is actually a public place and a public good that serves broader public needs more urgent than the free flow or the storage of private vehicles. This book captures some of these quick changes to city streets in response to societal needs during COVID, with two open questions: 1) what changes will endure post-COVID?; and 2) will communities be more open to street reconfigurations, including quick and inexpensive trials, going forward?

This report is an examination of parking, curb zones, and government service changes in the context of AVs. Given that there are very few actual AVs on the road, the analysis in this report is an attempt to project what we might see, using the current phenomenon as starting points. The report uses a mix of econometric modeling, cost accounting, and case studies to illustrate these projections.

"This paper will address current progress and direction for autonomous vehicles, what this could mean for the future of transport and the possible analytical approaches to addressing these impacts."

"The advent of automated driving technology is poised to transform the trucking industry in the years and decades to come, but it is clear that autonomous trucks will not be ready to handle all driving tasks and conditions anytime soon. Instead, the developers of this technology are working to build a future where drivers and automation work hand in hand to transport freight more safely and efficiently."

The trucking industry is expected to be an early adopter of self-driving technology which could have a major impact on the truck-driving profession.

This study explores the full life cycle impacts of connected and automated vehicles beyond just operational impacts to understand net energy and environmental performance.

Increasing automation of vehicles presents may unknowns and concerns, the most important being safety, both in terms of road safety and cyber security. This report examines how these safety concerns will need to be addressed with emerging autonomous technologies by applying the principles of the "Safe System."

Portland City Council adopted the Automated Vehicles policy in June 2018 regulating the operation of AVs in the city.

The town of Innisfil in Ontario, Canada has partnered with Uber in place of public transit. Low density development drove the town to choose subsidizing Uber over creating a public transit system due to the perceived cost of both. However, the amount Innisfil spent subsidizing Uber rides has already exceeded the amount they estimated it would cost to create a public transit system. Experts question the partnership, citing environmental and economic problems.

This article outlines a case study of Los Angeles parking requirements, studying whether parking requirements impact the amount and type of housing that is developed, particularly in housing developed in old vacant and commercial buildings.

TNCs provide on-demand mobility service that either complements or competes with transit services. This article studies how TNCs influence changes in urban travel patterns as well as energy and environmental implications.

The growth of ride-hailing services has led to more traffic and less transit use in the United States, contrary to predictions that suggested the opposite would happen when transportation network companies first started becoming popular. Some data shows that household vehicle ownership increased in cities where Uber and Lyft are most heavily used, while there is also a growing number of urban households that own zero or few cars. The article analyzes this data to determine whether Americans own fewer cars, and discusses how vehicle ownership relates to population growth in several cities.

This article discusses an experiment conducted to investigate the factors contributing to travel mode choice. The experiment found that subjects were more inclined to chose cars over other forms of transportation, even when another form of transportation might have been more ideal based on cost or travel time. This demonstrates the concept of car stickiness, where travelers are heavily biased towards traveling in cars over other forms of transportation.

This report summarizes the major assumptions, predictions and forecasts that have been made for autonomous vehicles. It emphasizes their impact and takes focus on the effects it will have on previously immobile people and what it will take to integrate them legislatively.

Bird and Scoot announced that Bird is acquiring Scoot, the San Francisco-based electric vehicle pioneer. The acquisition is a strategic decision from two like-minded companies.

With the potential to save nearly 30,000 lives per year in the United States, autonomous vehicles portend the most significant advance in auto safety history by shifting the focus from minimization of post-crash injury to collision prevention. I have delineated the important public health implications of autonomous vehicles and provided a brief analysis of a critically important ethical issue inherent in autonomous vehicle design. The broad expertise, ethical principles, and values of public health should be brought to bear on a wide range of issues pertaining to autonomous vehicles.

Continuous and dynamic growth in demand for road transport, especially in developing countries, causes increase of greenhouse gases (GHG) emissions. At the same time the emissions of toxic components of exhaust gases harmful to human health and the environment enhance – particulate matter, nitrogen oxides, carbon monoxide and others. In particular, GHG emission and increase their concentration in the atmosphere, where road transport is the largest issuer in the transport sector, become one of the most important global problems. So far actions towards reducing energy consumption and emissions have not caused a decrease in global emissions. The aim of authors of this paper is to analyze the potential for AV to reduce GHG emissions from road transport. The analysis includes not only technical and technological issues, but also organizational and in the management of transport demand.

"Connected and automated vehicle (CAV) technologies have the potential to change transportation on a global scale. These technologies could improve safety, significantly alter transportation costs, and change traffic patterns and congestion." This time is now to begin having these conversations about how CAVs may integrate into our cities and the impact they could have on land use.

One of the public policy goals for livable and sustainable communities is to minimize the use of automobiles. This paper focuses on introducing and justifying an important new policy principle. Even when car travel is minimized with smart growth land development policies, transportation demand management, and increased public transit, a significant level of automobile use will remain. As a result, reducing the environmental, economic and safety impacts of those remaining automobiles should be an essential element of a livable, sustainable community. Fortunately, fundamental and disruptive technological advances in new vehicles—automation, connectivity, and electrification as described in this paper are fast emerging to make this new priority feasible.

The "what ifs" are endless at this point. This article leaves us with only the tip of the iceberg of answers that could lead to what will happen as we are faced with major changes in transportation.

This commentary discusses about how AVs have impact on the space such as parking and road safety, etc.

This report recommends potential research and policies that will help shape progress towards that vision. It also clarifies some opportunities and preparatory work for TransLink to consider as an operator. These are explained in the body.

"As automated vehicle technologies advance, they have the potential to dramatically reduce the loss of life each day in roadway crashes. To support industry innovators and States in the deployment of this technology, while informing and educating the public, and improving roadway safety through the safe introduction of the technology, NHTSA presents Automated Driving Systems: A Vision for Safety. It is an important part of DOT’s multimodal efforts to support the safe introduction of automation technologies. In this document, NHTSA offers a nonregulatory approach to automated vehicle technology safety."

Automated vehicle (AV) policy development and assessment is a difficult and complicated process. Today’s road and vehicle policies are the product of a hundred years of lessons learned. They generally address five areas: safety, efficiency, mobility, convenience, and impact on the environment. Now the prospect-turned-reality of automated vehicles entering public roadways has opened up a number of new policy-related questions. Is it enough to simply modify current road and vehicle policies or will new policies need to be developed addressing much broader aspects of the transportation system? How can these policies be developed to accommodate technologies that either do not yet exist or are only now being tested on the road in constrained environments? Perhaps most importantly, how can policy influence technological design to safely operate with other road users and can we look ahead to have a better view of potential unintended consequences?

"Our primary focus is travel related energy consumption and emissions, since potential lifecycle impacts are generally smaller in magnitude. We explore the net effects of automation on emissions through several illustrative scenarios, finding that automation might plausibly reduce road transport GHG emissions and energy use by nearly half – or nearly double them – depending on which effects come to dominate."

This article is a review of Adonia Lugo's book: "Bicycle / Race: Transportation, Culture, & Resistance". The book talks about issues of race and class in bicycle culture. It is a call to refocus bicycle-planning beyond physical infrastructure to include human-infrastructure that centers on the stories and identities that shape how, where, when, and why we travel.

Autonomous vehicles will have a major impact on parking facility designs in the future. Compared to regular car-parks that have only two rows of vehicles in each island, future car-parks (for autonomous vehicles) can have multiple rows of vehicles stacked behind each other. Although this multi-row layout reduces parking space, it can cause blockage if a certain vehicle is barricaded by other vehicles and cannot leave the facility. To release barricaded vehicles, the car-park operator has to relocate some of the vehicles to create a clear pathway for the blocked vehicle to exit. The extent of vehicle relocation depends on the layout design of the car-park. To find the optimal car-park layout with minimum relocations, we present a mixed-integer non-linear program that treats each island in the car-park as a queuing system. We solve the problem using Benders decomposition for an exact answer and we present a heuristic algorithm to find a reasonable upper-bound of the mathematical model. We show that autonomous vehicle car-parks can decrease the need for parking space by an average of 62% and a maximum of 87%. This revitalization of space that was previously used for parking can be socially beneficial if car-parks are converted into commercial and residential land-uses.

Wondering what is happening in legislation across the country? This report is updated as of 2017 as to what different states are doing to prepare for the arrival of Autonomous Vehicles.

Transit bus automation could deliver many potential benefits, but transit agencies need additional research and policy guidance to make informed deployment decisions. Although funding and policy constraints may play a role, there is also a reasonable unwillingness to risk public funding or to undertake new operational models without a full understanding of the approach or without federal leadership and guidance. The purpose of this report is to define a five-year Strategic Transit Automation Research Plan that will establish a research and demonstration framework to move the transit industry forward. Key components of the Plan include conducting enabling research, identifying and resolving barriers to deployment, leveraging technologies from other sectors, demonstrating market-ready technologies, and transferring knowledge to the transit stakeholder community.

This municipal action guide is meant to give cities the ability to better understand and approach the impending roll out of autonomous vehicles in their cities. We hope to lay out the current typologies of how cities and other levels of government are working together with the private sector to begin to integrate self-driving cars onto the roadways.

This resolution by the Governor of Washington speaks support for the testing of autonomous vehicles in the state of Washington.

This report, BCG's latest on AVs, examines the case for AVs as a cornerstone of the urban mobility revolution, as seen through the experience of Boston. It describes transportation challenges, strategic considerations, scenario modeling and simulations, and field testing.

This article summarizes the history of how Level of Service (LOS) became tied to the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) and the motivations for the current shift away from LOS toward Vehicles Miles Traveled (VMT) as an environmental review point for new construction projects.

This report seeks to represent a comprehensive assessment of energy savings potential for heavy trucks.

The Global Street Design Guide is supporting practitioners to redefine the role of streets in cities around the world.

"The purpose of this report is to provide an overview of the state of automated vehicle (AV) technology in transit. The Florida Department of Transportation (FDOT) wishes to know what AV technology is currently available that could be used in transit with an eye towards possible demonstration projects."

This article introduces the first legislation introduced by the Federal Government and how they see autonomous vehicles can help better the country.

A dispatch from the 2017 consumer electronic show, where robo-car were on full display-and predictions about how we'll use them were flying.

"Ride-sharing services are transforming urban mobility by providing timely and convenient transportation to anybody, anywhere, and anytime. These services present enormous potential for positive societal impacts with respect to pollution, energy consumption, congestion, etc."

"This report examines the changes that might result from the large-scale uptake of a shared and self-driving fleet of vehicles in a mid-sized European city. The study explores two different self-driving vehicle concepts, for which we have coined the terms 'TaxiBot' and 'AutoVot'. TaxiBots are self-driving cars that can be shared simultaneously by several passengers. AutoVots pick-up and drop-off single passengers sequentially. We had two premises for this study: First, the urban mobility system upgrade with a fleet of TaxiBots and AutoVots should deliver the same trips as today in terms of origin, destination and timing. Second, it should also replace all car and bus trips. The report looks at impacts on car fleet size, volume of travel and parking requirements over two different time scales: a 24-hour average and for peak hours only."

This chapter is intended for the reader who wants to understand what vehicle automation is, its main research questions, and what are its main implications. We also provide guidance on the methods that have been used or could be used to assess its impacts, hence allowing future research on this topic.

Through a review of long-range transportation plans and interviews with planners, this article examines how large metropolitan planning organizations are preparing for autonomous vehicles. In just a few years, the prospect of commercially available self-driving cars and trucks has gone from a futurist fantasy to a likely near-term reality. However, uncertainties about the new technology and its relationship to daily investment decisions have kept mention of self-driving cars out of nearly all long-range transportation plans.

This article discusses the changes that will be necessary once AVs hit our streets. The changes in insurance policies, jobs, land use, etc. will change our societal norms.

As a result of transportation challenges faced by rural areas, public agencies, non-profits and companies are collaborating in new ways to leverage emerging technology and service models to improve mobility options for rural and small-town residents. The following examples demonstrate just a few of the ways public agencies and multi-sector partnerships are working to close mobility gaps in small and rural communities.

Nuro, now a part of Waymo, released an autonomous driving grocery delivery service in Scottsdale. The partnership with Fry's grocery charges customers only $6 for delivery and will have two available vehicles on the streets for deliveries.

This whitepaper helps to stimulate debate over the proper way to introduce autonomous vehicles into society, with a hope that it leads to greater collaboration among all stakeholders about how to tackle the issue of congestion in autonomous future.

"As a guide for planners and policymakers, the objective of this thesis is to develop a strong foundation for anticipating the potential impacts resulting from advancements in vehicle automation. To establish the foundation, this thesis uses a robust qualitative methodology, coupling a review of literature on the potential advantages and disadvantages of vehicle automation and lessons from past innovations in transportation, with recent trends of the Millennial Generation, carsharing services, and a series of interviews with thought-leaders in automation, planning, policymaking, transportation, and aviation. From the perspective of understanding the bigger picture, this thesis developed a proposed future scenario of vehicle automation in the next five to ten years that is used to suggest guiding principles for policymakers, and key recommendations for planners, engineers, and researchers."

"To better understand the emerging area of low-speed automated shuttles, the U.S. Department of Transportation (USDOT) Intelligent Transportation Systems Joint Program Office (ITS JPO) partnered with the John A. Volpe National Transportation Systems Center (Volpe) to review the current state of the practice of low-speed automated shuttles. These vehicles share many characteristics with other forms of automated vehicles but include unique considerations in terms of design, operations, and service type, including: fully automated driving (intended for use without a driver); operational design domain (ODD) (restricted to protected and less-complicated environments); low speeds (cruising speeds around 10-15 mph); shared service (typically designed to carry multiple passengers, including unrestrained passengers and standees); and shared right-of-way with other road users, either at designated crossing locations or along the right-of-way itself. This report defines design and service characteristics; discusses the deployers, their motivations, and their partners; and provides information on demonstrations and deployments, both international and domestic. The document also provides context on common challenges and suggested mitigations. Building on all of this information, the document identifies several research questions on topics ranging from safety and accessibility to user acceptance and societal impacts."

"This chapter firstly approaches these questions from the historical perspective of in-house logistics, as this provides a clear understanding of companies’ motivations for implementing driverless transport systems and the individual experience of company decision-makers’. Using case studies from the field of logistics and freight transport, this chapter will examine current fields of application and, wherever possible, the navigation and safety concept required for autonomous driving as well as control. Moreover, it will outline specific use cases for freight transport."

"This report addresses the need for knowledge by providing practical considerations of essential pilot program elements. To assist transit agencies, this report illustrates previously executed autonomous shuttle pilot programs, identifies the core elements of a pilot program, and discusses the relationship between elements. To accomplish these tasks, this report reviews nine European autonomous shuttle pilot programs, literature surrounding the topic, and interviews key personnel associated with the pilot programs. The results of this research help transit agencies make informed decisions about approaching autonomous shuttle pilot programs in public transportation."

"In this chapter I address three commonly misunderstood aspects of vehicle automation: capability, deployment, and connectivity. For each, I identify a myth pervading public discussion, provide a contradictory view common among experts, explain why that expert view is itself incomplete, and finally discuss the legal implications of this nuance. Although there are many more aspects that merit clarification, these three are linked because they suggest a shift in transportation from a product model to a service model, a point with which I conclude."

Ten years into the race to build self-driving cars, many developers, analysts and even venture capital firms say robot cars won't go mainstream for another decade or more.

In this article, we set out to collect the facts and compile CEO quotes to determine the self-driving timelines of the world’s 11 largest automakers. Many businesses and industries will be impacted by the impending transitions in autonomous vehicle tech, and our aim is to put the most relevant facts together for business leaders and auto enthusiasts alike.

The Indiana Toll Road in the US has reduced traffic incidents by 30 per cent using Extreme Networks intelligent transportation system. The Indiana Toll Road Concession Company (ITRCC) deployed the software-driven network, which uses Extreme’s Smart OmniEdge technology to provide real-time updates on traffic patterns, enabling safer, more coordinated use of the roadway.

In the last ten years transit use in Southern California has fallen significantly. This report investigates that falling transit use. We define Southern California as the six counties that participate in the Southern California Association of Governments (SCAG) – Los Angeles, Orange, Riverside, San Bernardino, Ventura and Imperial. We examine patterns of transit service and patronage over time and across the region, and consider an array of explanations for falling transit use: declining transit service levels, eroding transit service quality, rising fares, falling fuel prices, the growth of Lyft and Uber, the migration of frequent transit users to outlying neighborhoods with less transit service, and rising vehicle ownership. While all of these factors probably play some role, we conclude that the most significant factor is increased motor vehicle access, particularly among low-income households that have traditionally supplied the region with its most frequent and reliable transit users.

This report by KPMG discusses how the new market will look like for autonomous future. It talks about transportation market, new customer demand, change of economic models, trip mission, and other market changes.

As more people make the shift to sustainable mobility options like e-scooters, cities are evolving their transportation infrastructure to combat car dominance and to allow human-scaled modes to thrive. In addition to creating dedicated spaces for people to ride shared micro-mobility devices, this transition also includes creating space for them to park when not in use. To explore how cities should think about parking and micro-mobility, Bird sat down for a conversation with parking expert Donald Shoup.

This article highlights the disaster that could be the continuation of everyone thinking they need their own car for each trip they take and how we need to get serious about expanding the sharing economy.

We review the history, current developments, projected future trends and environmental impacts of automated vehicles (AVs) and on-demand mobility, and explore potential synergies. Many automobile manufacturers and Google plan to release AVs between 2017 and 2020, with potential benefits including increased safety, more efficient road use, increased driver productivity and energy savings. Combining on-demand mobility and AVs may amplify adoption of both, and further lower energy use and GHG emissions through the use of small, efficient shared AVs.