Researchers Model Impact of Shared Autonomous Vehicles
Posted: Apr 1, 2022
Given the growing interest in and promising market for shared autonomous vehicles, metropolitan planning organizations and departments of transportation need to begin modeling how SAV technology would impact regional travel patterns and consider the special needs of automated vehicles in long-range cost estimates and programming processes. University of Utah researchers developed a framework to estimate the impact of SAVs on travel demand in Utah to the year 2040 and found that SAVs will increase daily VMT by up to 9%, in part by improving the mobility of underserved populations.
Given the growing interest in and promising market for shared autonomous vehicles, metropolitan planning organizations and departments of transportation need to begin modeling how SAV technology would impact regional travel patterns and consider the special needs of automated vehicles in long-range cost estimates and programming processes. University of Utah researchers developed a framework to estimate the impact of SAVs on travel demand in Utah to the year 2040 and found that SAVs will increase daily VMT by up to 9%, in part by improving the mobility of underserved populations.