The Convergence of Vehicle Electrification and Automation—Enabling Sustainable Automated Mobility Districts
Publication: ASCE Inspire 2023
ABSTRACT
The transportation industry is entering a new frontier with three major simultaneous transformations: electrification, automation, and on-demand services. All three directly affect the same spaces of vehicle technology, infrastructure, and system operational performance. Further, each area of change adds its own driving forces of complexity to the others’ design challenges. This paper explores these transformations, framing the implications for vehicle technology and infrastructure and their impact on operating concepts and strategies, which in turn impact the sustainability of the transportation infrastructure in the built environment. Specifically, this paper examines battery-electric vehicles operating in a fully automated fleet within an “automated mobility district” (AMD) setting with multiple on-demand services. From this examination, the paper assesses the implications for transportation electrification, comparing and contrasting traditional fixed-route services with those of on-demand transit and automated transit networks, including the trade-offs between vehicle range (battery capacity), charging parameters, power availability, and operations predictability with respect to policy and infrastructure configurations. The paper also addresses the configuration and management of boarding and alighting zones (also called pickup and drop-off zones), and the need for complementary infrastructure intelligence at intersections and curbs. Finally, conclusions are drawn with respect to the system integration and analysis needs for AMDs regarding resilience and sustainability of mobility infrastructure.
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REFERENCES
Lott, J. S., and Young, S. 2021. “A Safety and Management Framework to Enable Automated Mobility Districts in Urban Areas.” Proceedings of the 2021 ASCE International Conference on Transportation and Development. https://doi.org/10.1061/9780784483534.045.
Lott, J. S., and Young, S. 2023. “Automated Electric Vehicle Fleet Operations for On-Demand Service: Challenges and Opportunities.” Proceedings of the ASCE International Conference on Transportation and Development, 8–10 June 2023.
Lott, J. S., Young, S., Duval, A., and Henao, A. 2022. Passenger Boarding Station and Curbfront Configuration Concepts for On-Demand Services with Small Automated Vehicles. National Renewable Energy Laboratory, Golden, CO. https://www.nrel.gov/docs/fy22osti/81976.pdf.
Lott, J. S., Young, S., and Zhu, L. 2021. Safe Operations at Roadway Junctions - Design Principles from Automated Guideway Transit, SAE International, Warrendale, PA. Also published in 2022 SAE International Journal of Advances and Current Practices in Mobility. https://doi.org/10.4271/2021-01-1004.
Young, S., and Lott, J. S. 2022. The Automated Mobility District Implementation Catalog, 2nd Edition: Safe and Efficient Automated Vehicle Fleet Operations for Public Mobility. National Renewable Energy Laboratory, Golden, CO. https://www.nrel.gov/docs/fy22osti/83276.pdf.
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Published online: Nov 14, 2023
ASCE Technical Topics:
- Analysis (by type)
- Automated transit systems
- Automation and robotics
- Batteries
- Business management
- Energy infrastructure
- Energy storage
- Engineering fundamentals
- Highway transportation
- Infrastructure
- Infrastructure resilience
- Lifeline systems
- Practice and Profession
- Public transportation
- Sustainable development
- System analysis
- Systems engineering
- Transportation engineering
- Vehicles
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