Transportation & Planning Impacts

Roadways in the automated world would probably look very different due to vehicles being both safer and more efficient. These changes will affect not only affect passengers of a vehicle, but pedestrians as well.

Connected vehicles can use wireless communication to “talk” to traffic signals, work zones, toll booths, school zones, and other types of infrastructure. Non-safety applications may be based on different types of wireless technology. Cars, trucks, buses, and other vehicles will be able to “talk” to each other with in-vehicle or aftermarket devices that continuously share important safety and mobility information with each other. Connected and fully automated vehicles (CAVs) refers to fully automated vehicles that are also equipped with communication technologies.

The introduction of autonomous vehicles will undoubtedly change the way people and goods travel. City planners and transportation and traffic engineers will be presented with new challenges and opportunities with the emergence of these vehicles.

The introduction of automation technology will greatly influence current transport networks, travel behavior, and ridership choices. Real-time data precision will increase intersection and lane capacities, reducing travel time. The preferences and impacts of fully-automated vehicles (AVs) and shared full-automated vehicles (SAVs) will differ for all subgroup categories of demographics and economic backgrounds.

The transportation of goods by truck, train, ship, or aircraft is hugely important to the function of the U.S. economy. Automation will transform the current functionality of freight transportation through automated trucks.

Connected and fully automated vehicle (CAV) technology has the potential to allow vehicles to assist in avoiding collisions, mitigating crash severity, ensuring traffic safety, and reducing crashes due to human error (which is the most prominent contributor to crashes). Many safety benefits of AV technology would save thousands of lives and billions of dollars every year for various industries.

The introduction of fully-automated vehicles (AVs) will lead to tremendous changes to the current U.S. transportation system, VMT, congestion, and traffic flow patterns, among other things. While there are many concerns about the negative traffic impacts of AVs, the automated nature of the vehicles does suggest a possibility of a reduction in long-term congestion if properly implemented.