We need transportation every day: to get food, to go to school or work, to attend to social and cultural activities, to access healthcare services, etc. As an initiative of the National Complete Streets Coalition, and as part of the webinar series Implementation & Equity 201: The Path Forward to Complete Streets, a panel of experts discussed how will emerging technology (ET) impact cities and streets in terms of new mobility and the built environment. ET includes autonomous (i.e., driverless shuttles), shared automated (SAV) and connected vehicles. They all have changed the way we use, design, build and think about roads (e.g., how far and fast people travel), and might have potential benefits including a reduction in congestion and the need for parking spaces, extending the reach of public transit and improving safety.
The experts also stated that historically, cars parked 94% of the time, 87% of daily trips are in personal vehicle and 38% of all trips are single occupancy, needing an average land-use of 3.4 spaces per car for parking. SAV could replace 12 conventional vehicles that serve to 31-41 persons a day eliminating 11 parking spaces. ET would also mobilize historically underserved populations (i.e., improve the safety and mobility of all users of the road regardless of age, ability, or mode of transportation), help to reduce amount of subsidy needed for paratransit operation, and improve accessibility to goods and services extending the reach of public transit.
New vehicles will also need less space and lanes so stakeholders can repurpose extra roadway for people and bikes promoting healthier lifestyles among walkable communities and sharing vivid streets with sustainable infrastructure for pedestrians; which has been a priority topic in recent summits about physical activity promotion.
Finally, they displayed a summary of benefits of ET where basically they seem to be sustainable, affordable, equitable, accommodating, influencing disruptive and diverse. The end-goal would be the implementation of shared roads where pedestrians, cyclists, and vehicles (either automatic or not) can operate altogether in a commingled setting. There are several cities and companies involved, but this initiative is just taking baby steps so launching a pilot project or further studies showing tangible outcomes to gain transit planners, policy makers and stakeholder confidence to be promoted as a “healthy change” for improving quality of life are needed.
As practitioners, we could encourage people who reach out to us for help to think about their environment and its influence on their choice of transportation and mobility. There could be also pilot studies comparing cities that are implementing any sort of ET with “regular/control” cities, including physical activity, leisure time, or access to healthy food as outcome variables.
Incorporating ET as an initiative of Complete Streets is an excellent idea, especially as technology pushes our current limits and opens up doors for new ways to implement and innovate the world around us. However, at this point in time, utilizing SAV seems to be a bit problematic in my opinion. First, it might be challenging to invest in automated vehicles because they are an unproven technology with a lot of liability, especially if they are carrying large groups of people. Second, the money required to fund these SAV’s would likely come from taxpayers, which will almost certainly lead to a lot of politicking and endless debate between those who are for and against SAV. Third, the current infrastructure of public transportation already exists in so many cities that it would likely be a detriment to replace it due to the massive layoffs and subsequent unemployment that would ensue. Finally, many people commute into large cities with their personal vehicles, so there might not be a significant reduction in the need for parking spaces and traffic lanes to warrant the re-purposing of them. There is still the human element to consider as well because people could exploit the use of these vehicles and their technology. At this time, I think Complete Streets is better off investing the majority of their time and resources into educating the public, revamping current infrastructure to allow greater access to public transportation and increasing participation in physical activity-based transportation.
Hi IMC28001,
Thank you for writing about this topic. This is new information to me and was fascinating to read! It would be wonderful to be able to utilize these technologies in a way that would benefit health. Sometimes technology can be viewed negatively in terms of physical activity, because it often makes our lives easier. This is a great example of some of the amazing benefits of technology! I have a few questions. You mention that the initiative is in early stages; do you know a time frame when these technologies would be expected to be mainstream? Also, do you think this type of model would be feasible in a variety of different cities the US and truly effective at increasing physical activity? It seems like a very good idea, but I wonder how generalizable the technology could be. I would love to know your thoughts or any insight that the speakers provided.
Hello, Emily! It was new information to me as well, and it was also enlightening to read about how emerging technologies on the streets might enhance our mobility increasing our physical activity. The initiative is in early steps mainly because several policies and regulations have to be approved before that its focus on smart mobility and equity can provide everyone with access to safe and convenient ways to travel. It is also necessary to gain stakeholders and public confidence before and during the process. Nonetheless, the speakers mentioned that they expect the soonest impact of using semi-automated and connected vehicles in the next 1-5 years because some of them are circulating already. The panel also shared that a brand new Complete Streets policy framework will be used beginning in 2018 to analyze and rank some made decisions –including emerging technologies implementation- and its potential impact on social dynamics. What is true is that interested planners, engineers, researchers, and other stakeholders are doing their best to see their initiatives in practice as soon as possible. On the other hand, this type of transportation might be not feasible in a variety of cities in this country. We can reimagine today’s surfaces parking as tomorrow’s green spaces for physical activity and outdoor recreation activities, but due to its cost, departmental and regional collaboration is key, so I think that in some communities will be difficult to put all the involved interests on the same track. Other sorts of initiatives, maybe less costly or less technology-based, would be more feasible in smaller or low-income cities in order to enhance communities’ mobility and physical activity.
This was an interesting read. It is shocking to see statistics about how much space our cars take up and how often they are parked! It is exciting to think how more street space for active commuters and people enjoying leisure activity may enhance physical activity in our communities. Are there already prototypes of the autonomous, shared automated, and connected vehicles being tested?
Hi Hannah, thanks for your comment! Yes, there are already autonomous vehicles on the roads as well as shared automated and connected vehicles being tested. Some of these vehicles aid and are tested in disaster relief or other complex scenarios. Some big enterprises have already tested some models with a kind of pilot assist technology, which is the foundation for fully-automated and connected vehicles. There are also several states in this country considering specific legislation related to autonomous vehicles (http://www.ncsl.org/research/transportation/autonomous-vehicles-self-driving-vehicles-enacted-legislation.aspx). Let’s stay optimistic that, in a near future, artificial intelligence engineering will help out with the mobility and land use improving individual’s quality of life.