A Stantec review of global AV research

There’s tremendous interest in research around smart, automated, and shared mobility. When the National Cooperative Highway Research Program (NCHRP) wanted to find answers to some of the most pressing questions, they brought us in to lead the development of nine topical papers in support of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine’s TRB Forum on Preparing for Automated Vehicles and Shared Mobility Services.

Our papers explored data sharing, safety scenarios, infrastructure enablers, social impacts, freight movement impacts, transit impacts, land use impacts, and equity, accessibility, and inclusion. We consulted with forum members, reviewed and analyzed completed research, and included recommendations for future research to support each topic. Afterwards, we presented our findings to the TRB Forum on Preparing for Automated Vehicles and Shared Mobility and TRB through a poster session at the Annual Conference. 

The research showed that the roles and responsibilities of governance structures around smart mobility upgrades were unclear and that the most researched topics were safety and land use. Of recent relevance were the impacts of automated vehicles on freight, goods delivery, and transit, as well as the implications from COVID-19. The papers can be found at the links below.

• Impacts and Opportunities around Land Use and Automated Vehicles and Shared Mobility
  
• Implications for Planning and Modeling
  
• Impacts of Automated Vehicles and Shared Mobility on Transit and Partnership Opportunities
  
• Potential for Impacts of Highly Automated Vehicles and Shared Mobility on Movement of Goods and People
  
• Prioritizing Equity, Accessibility and Inclusion around the Deployment of Automated Vehicles
  
• Maximizing Positive Social Impacts of Automated Vehicles and Shared Mobility
  
• Infrastructure Enablers for Automated Vehicles and Shared Mobility
• Safety Scenarios and Engagement during Transition to Highly Automated Vehicles
  
• Models for Data Sharing and Governance for Automated Vehicles and Shared Mobility