KEYWORDSautomated driving; first, second, and third order impacts; policy and societal implications; ripple effect
ABSTRACTIn this paper, the potential effects of automated driving that are relevant to policy and society are explored, findings discussed in literature about those effects are reviewed and areas for future research are identified. The structure of our review is based on the ripple effect concept, which represents the implications of automated vehicles at three different stages: first-order (traffic, travel cost, and travel choices), second-order (vehicle ownership and sharing, location choices and land use, and transport infrastructure), and third-order (energy consumption, air pollution, safety, social equity, economy, and public health). Our review shows that first-order impacts on road capacity, fuel efficiency, emissions, and accidents risk are expected to be beneficial. The magnitude of these benefits will likely increase with the level of automation and cooperation and with the penetration rate of these systems. The synergistic effects between vehicle automation, sharing, and electrification can multiply these benefits. However, studies confirm that automated vehicles can induce additional travel demand because of more and longer vehicle trips. Potential land use changes have not been included in these estimations about excessive travel demand. Other third-order benefits on safety, economy, public health and social equity still remain unclear. Therefore, the balance between the short-term benefits and long-term impacts of vehicle automation remains an open question.
Widespread adoption of electric vehicles (EVs) may contribute to the alleviation of problems such as environmental pollution, global warming and oil dependency. However, the current market penetration of EV is relatively low in spite of many governments implementing strong promotion policies. This paper presents a comprehensive review of studies on consumer preferences for EV, aiming to better inform policy-makers and give direction to further research. First, we compare the economic and psychological approach towards this topic, followed by a conceptual framework of EV preferences which is then implemented to organise our review. We also briefly review the modelling techniques applied in the selected studies. Estimates of consumer preferences for financial, technical, infrastructure and policy attributes are then reviewed. A categorisation of influential factors for consumer preferences into groups such as socioeconomic variables, psychological factors, mobility condition, social influence, etc. is then made and their effects are elaborated. Finally, we discuss a research agenda to improve EV consumer preference studies and give recommendations for further research.
In this paper, we present the case that traditional transport appraisal methods do not sufficiently capture the social dimensions of mobility and accessibility. However, understanding this is highly relevant for policymakers to understand the impacts of their transport decisions. These dimensions include the distribution of mobility and accessibility levels over particular areas or for specific population groups, as well as how this may affect various social outcomes, including their levels of participation, social inclusion and community cohesion. In response, we propose a method to assess the socially relevant accessibility impacts (SRAIs) of policies in some of these key dimensions. The method combines the use of underlying ethics principles, more specifically the theories of egalitarianism and sufficientarianism, in combination with accessibility-based analysis and the Lorenz curve and Gini index. We then demonstrate the method in a case study example. Our suggestion is that policymakers can use these ethical perspectives to determine the equity of their policies decisions and to set minimum standards for local transport delivery. This will help them to become more confident in the development and adoption of new decision frameworks that promote accessibility over mobility and which also disaggregate the costs and benefits of transport policies over particular areas or for specific under-served population groups.
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