Introduction Growth in urban areas has resulted in conflicts between road users as they share the roadway. Such conflicts are only exacerbated by failings in the planning process. The purpose of this study is to examine, through a case study in Trondheim, Norway, issues related to freight delivery on a street section with a high volume of cyclists in order to identify how and where urban freight should be addressed within the urban planning process. Methods The study consists of two parts: (1) a safety evaluation of the location through video recordings which identifies the risk areas associated with freight delivery and encounters with cyclists, and (2) a mapping of the planning process through semi-structured interviews in order to understand the development decisions involving a facility requiring deliveries and the surrounding streetscape. Results The safety analysis identified several risk areas mainly associated with the turning manoeuvres of trucks undertaken either before or after deliveries. The mapping of the planning process indicated that there were few to no discussions of freight deliveries during the planning, design and construction of the building; neither were there any for the streetscape projects taking place within the same time frame.Conclusions The absence of a dedicated freight policy and/or personnel at the governing authority, as well as lack of coordination amongst different plans (construction, street, thematic), are likely to lead to continued problematic and potentially dangerous environments such as that in the case study. Improvements to the Norwegian planning process, namely earlier integration of freight considerations, are required to ensure sustainable freight systems in the urban environment.
Introduction
Increasing numbers of deployment projects of automated shuttles have been taking place worldwide. Safety is one of the main concerns for their successful implementation. Therefore, it is vital to gain the knowledge about interactions between these shuttles and other traffic participants.
Method
Given the lack of behavioural observational studies under regular traffic conditions, the presented study applies external video recordings to explore encounters between the shuttles approaching a T-intersection and other traffic participants. The encounters of interest included a vulnerable road user in the bicycle lane, a pedestrian on the zebra crossing and a road user overtaking the shuttle. The shuttles were identified from the video by RUBA software. We analysed the encounters using T-Analyst software together with the manual observation of traffic participants' behaviour.
Results
From 220 h of video, 318 unique manoeuvres of the shuttle were observed and 83 encounters with other traffic participants were identified and explored. Several types of risks and behavioural patterns were identified, such as road users misusing the defensive style of the shuttles or cyclists in the bicycle lane not being sure about the shuttle’s intention. Frequent hard stops of the shuttles might be dangerous for the passengers inside and can increase the risk of rear end accidents.
Conclusions
The findings provide a valuable insight into the interactions between automated shuttles and other traffic participants under regular traffic conditions on one location in Oslo, Norway. The study showed that introducing automated shuttles into regular traffic can lead to the emergence of new types of interactions between the shuttles and other traffic participants.
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