Citation

Mahmoodi Nesheli M, Li L, Palm M, Shalaby A. Case Stud. Transp. Policy 2021; 9(2): 723-742.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2021, World Conference on Transport Research Society, Publisher Elsevier Publishing)

DOI

10.1016/j.cstp.2021.03.010

PMID

unavailable

Abstract

The rollout of autonomous vehicles (AV) presents an invaluable opportunity to assess the user perception and experience of a new technology that is expected to disrupt the urban mobility system worldwide. To incorporate AV technologies into existing public transit systems, transit agencies need rigorous assessment and validation of AVs in real-world scenarios and transit environments. It has been a common practice lately by many transit agencies to deploy a driverless shuttle (DS) pilot program to assess how the AV technology can enhance transit service and improve users' satisfaction. Despite the numerous DS pilot programs around the world, there is a lack of robust and comprehensive guidelines for ensuring the effectiveness of such programs in attaining reliable outcomes and insights. The objective of this paper is to synthesise lessons from DS pilot programs worldwide and develop a planning framework that will help policy-makers and transit agencies facilitate the incorporation of DS in transit systems. Over 25 completed or ongoing DS deployments were reviewed and critiqued to identify what constitutes a successful pilot program. Ultimately, while previous deployments received positive feedback from the public, there have been few pilots that experienced operating environments representative of actual ridership, traffic, and weather conditions of real transit services. From the selected case studies, it is evident that the technology is still in its infancy and it is recommended that future programs consider various operating traffic and environmental conditions, different route layouts and various speed and headway levels to evaluate more realistically the viability of replacing conventional buses with DSs. Other possible avenues of research include focusing pilot programs on more specific use-cases, such as providing demand responsive and first/last mile services in sparsely populated areas.

Language: en

Keywords

Driverless shuttles; Pilot programs; Public transit