Will the ‘smart mobility’ revolution matter?

Abstract

Powerful claims are being made about revolution in the transport sector, with digital technology seen as underpinning a new ‘ecosystem’ of more efficient, more pleasant and less environmentally-damaging mobility. The chapter examines how far such claims are based on evidence, and the contextual conditions that would be necessary for such benefits to be realised. The four key technological shifts identified as part of the transition are interrogated: automation, electrification, digitally-enabled mobility, and collaborative-shared mobility. The benefits of ‘connected autonomous vehicles’ are found to be highly uncertain, in terms of extent and evolution, whereas electrification is confirmed as a necessary but not sufficient condition for more sustainable mobility. Digitally-enabled mobility is technically quite feasible, but continues to face considerable regulatory, institutional and financial barriers. Collective mobility is identified as the development which can potentially have the greatest impact on the sustainability of mobility, but its core claim, that middle-income citizens will choose to share small vehicles to achieve modest cost savings, is least supported by evidence. We conclude that the traditional concerns of transport planning, such as congestion and inequality of access, will likely be persistent features of the new regime.

Who Is Willing to Share Their AV? Insights about Gender Differences among Seven Countries

“…The former has been observed by Liu et al [48], who found that females are less likely to pay for AVs than males and that they showed lower acceptance of new technology than men. The latter has been previously confirmed, for example, through a revealed preference study using shared mini-vans (colectivos) in Mexico City [39]. Both issues have also been highlighted through the TOMNET study in four metropolitan areas in the US [64].…”

“…Studies to date [36,37] have tended to examine gender differences as a single sociodemographic variable in datasets through hypothetical Willingness-To-Accept/Willingness-To-Pay (WTA/WTP) [36] or actual experience of SAV use [38] rather than gender being the primary variable in framing the study. Other studies which have used existing vehicles (e.g., passenger mini-vans) to test user attitudes towards sharing in the Global South [39] have reported that personal security is a significant factor for female respondents who often feel less comfortable travelling in the same vehicle with strangers, which may be an important factor in SAV usage. In this context, it is pertinent to test gender differences linked with trip-chaining, which is commonly observed in journeys by women.…”