Impacts of Regulations and Policies on CV and AV Technology Introduction in Transit Operations

Overview

Connected vehicle (CV) and autonomous vehicle (AV) technologies offer the potential to significantly change public transportation systems and improve the safety, effectiveness, and quality of services. For instance, first- and last-mile AV services could bring riders to line haul modes and significantly increase ridership, while dynamic, on-demand services could improve service coverage to disabled individuals as well as transit services in rural and suburban areas. Governing bodies, DOTs, and local transportation agencies will require a better understanding of the ramifications of emerging CV/AV enabled applications. For example, extensive regulations, rules, and contracts govern the operations and characteristics of transit systems. Some of them, such as preservation of current job categories, could be incompatible with the new technologies. Almost certainly, the role of transit drivers will change and that will require significant coordination with labor unions. Also, there will be a need for new safety certification procedures of AV transit systems that are not confined to fixed guide ways, as well as new risk insurance models and pricing. Such issues need to be identified, understood, and next steps identified to enable the widespread adoption of CV/AV technologies in transit systems.