Sustainable Accessibility and the Implementation of Automated Vehicles: Identifying Critical Decisions

Abstract

Abstract:The emergence of fully Automated Vehicles (AVs) is expected to occur in the next 10 to 30 years. The uncertainties related to AVs pose a series of questions about what the societal consequences of such technology are. Mainly, what are the consequences of AVs regarding accessibility? This paper uses Geurs and Van Wee's definition of accessibility to give an exploratory answer to this question. Using a scenario-based approach which allows identifying critical decisions that will emerge shortly (or are already emerging) concerning automated travelling, this paper proposes that AVs have great potential to both seriously aggravate and considerably alleviate accessibility problems. A great deal will depend on how these critical decisions will be approached and the choices that will be made. This debate is most needed because existing research on AVs tends to focus on how to make them a commercially viable and safe technological enterprise, and on what their benefits and drawbacks are regarding variables such as carbon emissions, energy consumption, and total miles travelled. Narratives of this nature can be problematic, as they are unlikely to promote sufficient awareness about the real disruptive potential of AVs. It is crucial that stakeholders realise the extent to which-if the governance of AVs implementation processes is not taken very seriously, and the identified critical decisions are not carefully approached-these machines can materialise a dystopian mobility future.

Disruptive Impacts of Automated Driving Systems on the Built Environment and Land Use: An Urban Planner’s Perspective

“…Besides the environmental harm of greenfield developments-converting green or agricultural land into urban land uses ( Figure 6)-it induces additional GHG emissions due to long travel distance. In support of the abovementioned aspects, Table 2 highlights some of the contrasting (i.e., optimistic and pessimistic) perspectives on the likely impacts of AVs on our cities and societies put together in the review study of Papa and Ferreira [77]. However, the gray tones or the mid views between the optimistic and pessimistic perspectives should be considered.…”

Automation and Urban Transport Planning: Policy Recommendations and Best Practices

“…The five goals are selected according to the main inputs included in S3 and highlighted in studies dealing with this type of scenario (e.g. Duarte and Ratti [18], Papa and Ferreira [19] and Hensher [20]). These goals are: 1) Shifting users from owning to sharing vehicles; 2) Promoting the cooperation of AVs and PT; 3) Converting recovered parking and road spaces; 4) Reorganizing stopping/parking practices; 5) Applying Automation to different means.…”

Distributive Justice and Transportation Equity: Inequality in accessibility in Rio de Janeiro

“…While much of the current research on autonomous vehicles and shared mobility systems focuses on how to make them commercially viable, future research will be needed to understand how these changes in technology and governance will reshape who gets access, when, and how, and what implications they might have for questions of equity, public health and environmental justice. Much of this research could already benefit from ongoing discussions on the ethics behind the use of big data and algorithms in the governance of emerging smart cities (Brauneis & Goodman, 2017;Kitchin, 2016) and autonomous vehicles (Mladenovic & McPherson, 2016;Papa & Ferreira, 2018;Shariff et al, 2017).…”