Innovation based on road vehicle automation provides new functionalities with a potential to change the existing patterns of urban transport supply. Advanced driver assistance systems can make car-based transport more efficient, environmentally friendly, comfortable and safer. Personal rapid transit is a revolutionary concept of automated taxis travelling on their own guide way which lends itself in particular to provide a circulator in commercial areas, business districts and campuses. Automatic driving capabilities enhance the performance of bus rapid transit used on the main-haul sections of the road public transport network. Cybernetic transport systems are already in operation in the form of road-based people movers providing on-demand capabilities for feeder and park-shuttle services, and could enable in the future, car sharing schemes with environmentally friendly vehicles where vehicles are automatically redistributed among parking places.

The target customer of the Deliverable is mainly the broad audience of public decision makers: policy makers, planners, purchasers, and operators. For them it is important to know the state of development of the various innovations, how they perform, how much they cost to buy and operate, and what impacts they might produce if implemented locally. Appropriate cross-project and cross-site syntheses of results are therefore needed in order to provide decision makers with evidence of relative advantages of comparable systems, and which may be the most appropriate for their own policy purposes and for their particular transport problems. Such information is key to facilitate informed decisions on trials or, possibly, full scale implementation. NETMOBIL supports research and demonstration of a range of Innovative Urban Transport Systems: automated driving systems with on-demand and door-to-door capabilities, personal rapid transit, advanced driver assistance systems and automated vehicle guidance systems. These technologies and applications offer the potential for both better and safer transport and an improved environment, in addition, providing the opportunity to improve Quality of Life for the whole Urban Community, including both the users and the non-users of the systems. High quality, sensitively designed Public Transport Services also offer benefits to increase accessibility and to reduce social exclusion.

NETMOBIL has formed a Cluster of research activities within the fields of automated vehicles, personal rapid transit, advanced driver assistance systems, automated vehicle guidance systems and their underlying technologies, by bringing together regional, national and international research. The formation of this network of research activities will strengthen scientific and technological excellence in this priority field and accelerate development and implementation of innovative urban transportation systems, which will support sustainable mobility objectives.

On-demand capability is seen as the main improvement, in terms of service for the users, enabled by automation technologies for public transport applications. The environmental benefits of PRT, advanced bus systems and road-based people movers are gained primarily by the environmentally-friendly propulsion of the vehicles. Additional benefits can be gained depending on the behavioural responses of the travellers. Measures like parking and road pricing or rationing may “push” more travellers to these systems which would represent a “carrot” making more acceptable for travellers the “stick” of pricing or rationing.

TRG, University of Southampton
http://www.trg.soton.ac.uk
Mike McDonald, tel. +44 2380592192

31/07/2005

NETMOBIL Consortium

research

Urban Policy > Transport and infrastructure > Roads and road transport

Traffic management