Autonomous Vehicles: a Potential Game Changer for Urban Mobility

According to a new position paper from UITP (the International Association of Public Transport), autonomous vehicles (AVs) will lead to a dystopian future of even more private car traffic on the road unless they are put to use in shared fleets and integrated with traditional public transport services.

The paper, ‘Autonomous vehicles: a potential game changer for urban mobility,’ demonstrates that despite the risk of increased congestion due to car travel becoming even more comfortable and attractive, an alternative exists. If AVs are put to use in shared fleets as ‘robo-taxis,’ mini-buses or in car-sharing fleets, they could dramatically reduce the number of cars on the road by reaching people and places it was too difficult to before, plugging first/last-mile gaps and feeding into public transport trunk lines.