Tailoring the Design of Shared Automated Vehicles to the Urban Context: Insights from Leuven

Source abstract

Vehicle automation, shared mobility, and on-demand mobility can potentially improve our transportation system. However, they might also cause unwanted impacts. This article addresses a critical gap in the literature by highlighting the importance of tailoring automated mobility services (AMS) to local contexts, rather than assuming a one-size-fits-all solution. For this purpose, it adopts a two-step approach, demonstrated through a case study of the city of Leuven, Belgium. The first step involves analyzing the heterogeneity of the impacts of a stop-based shared autonomous vehicle (SAV) service within the city to examine how contextual factors and service design influence the outcomes. The second step involves simulating improved service design scenarios based on the insights gained from the initial analysis. The results demonstrate that strategic pricing and the careful placement of pick-up and drop-off points (PUDOs) can effectively mitigate negative impacts such as increased vehicle kilometers traveled (VKT) and modal shifts away from public transport (PT), walking, and biking. Overall, this study is a thought-provoking example of how service design, such as PUDO locations, and the spatial and transportation context, such as PT offer, are crucial factors in shaping the impacts of AMS, emphasizing the need for context-appropriate AMS designs to achieve societal and operational benefits.