Urban networks and autonomous vehicles

Parkin, John

Abstract

All vehicles need routes, and infrastructure provision is therefore of prime importance. Autonomous vehicles will have to interact with humans as pedestrians, cyclists (on conventional and e-bikes) and other human scale mobility including wheel-chair users, and scooter and e-scooter users and motor-cyclists. This chapter explores the demands and limitations of motorised travel in urban areas, and explores the nature of networks needed to accommodate them and all the other activities of humans in urban areas. It identifies six principles for planning and six principles for designing urban routes for autonomous vehicles. Key amongst those are the way in which space is prioritised for different users, and the limitations that need to be placed on autonomous vehicles. The chapter then describes the nature of four types of route in relation to use by autonomous vehicles: routes segregated for use only by autonomous vehicles, high capacity and higher speed routes such as motorways and expressways, urban roads and streets, and priority routes for human scale mobility.

• Online Publication Date: Oct 25, 2021
• Publication Date: Oct 25, 2021
• Deposit Date: Apr 8, 2022
• Publisher: Thomas Telford (ICE Publishing)
• Book Title: Cities for driverless vehicles: Planning the future built environment with shared mobility
• Chapter Number: 5
• ISBN: 9780727764522
• Public URL: https://uwe-repository.worktribe.com/output/9305905