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Service Areas for level 4 automated vehicles integrated with public transport - findings from Zurich, Switzerland

Date and Time: Tuesday, July 11, 2023: 5:30 PM - 7:00 PM

Martin Russ 

Managing Director, AustriaTech
@AustriaTech

Presentation Description

More and more companies of level 4 automated vehicles are operating in cities around the world, especially in the US and Asia. However, with its legislation 2022/1426, the European Commission set up the legal requirements for the operation of level 4 automated vehicles also in Europe. Key for operation of level 4 automated vehicles with regard to existing mobility and spatial policy goals like reducing emissions, energy demand and increasing accessibility, however, will be their integration in the existing mobility system. This raises the question of which criteria can be used to determine where service areas for level 4 automated vehicles can be established and how to define them. Using the case study of the greater Zurich area in Switzerland at first the technical-infrastructural suitability of the street network for automated vehicles was assessed using a GIS-based methodology. Building on this assessment, collective forms of automated vehicles as first and last mile services to current public transport stations were modelled and the impacts on the accessibility with public transport were assessed to identify areas suitable for service areas of level 4 automated vehicles with regard to current transport planning goals in the greater Zurich region. This approach enabled insights into the areas where the greatest accessibility gains can be achieved and where the most people can benefit and thus provides an initial decision-making basis for the definition and planning of services areas for level 4 automated vehicles that are embedded in the current public transport system and through which a contribution in terms of transport and spatial policy goals can be achieved.

The results of the analysis for the greater Zurich region show that tendentially more peripheral locations of urban areas (often on the edge of the respective settlement body with comparatively low density and generous road spaces) as well as areas with rail connection and centres of small and medium-sized towns in the greater Zurich region would benefit from an increased accessibility in public transport when such level 4 automated vehicle services are in place. However, not in all areas an increase in accessibility is in line with current transport and spatial planning goals and could foster urban sprawl. Overlapping both the gains in accessibility due to level 4 automated vehicles as first/last mile feeders to public transport as well as the current population density and the envisaged population density from spatial planning policy goals, only some areas could be identified were such level 4 automated services could contribute to a high increase in public transport accessibility and in areas were a substantive amount people would benefit. The results give first insights for policy makers where services areas for level 4 automated vehicles should be established and such services should be implemented to best increase accessibility for public transport and contribute to existing transport and spatial planning goals and serve as an initial decision making when companies apply for operation and specific service areas for level 4 automated vehicle services.

Speaker Biography

Martin Russ became Managing Director of AustriaTech in 2011. AustriaTech is the “Explorative Mobility Transformation Agency” of the Austrian Ministry of Climate Action, Environment, Energy, Mobility, Innovation and Technology and follows a long-term strategy towards sustainable transport and mobility services and solutions, like Intelligent Transport Systems (ITS), Automated and Connected Mobility and e-mobility. The federal agency works in partnership with Austrian infrastructure operators, mobility service providers, the industry, as well as research facilities and public authorities. Martin Russ studied Regional and Transportation Planning at Vienna Technical University. As a consultant and transport engineer he gained broad experience in transportation and mobility planning and mobility technologies. From 2005 to 2008 he was responsible for the Austrian Transport Technology Research Program at the Austrian Research Promotion Agency (FFG). Between 2008 and 2011, he was senior advisor for innovation and technology at the cabinet of the Minister of Transport, Innovation and Technology. In addition he is a member of the coordinating committee of European ITS Nationals and the secretary general of the ITS Austria.

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