Automation and urban transport planning: Policy recommendations and best practices

Although Automation is expected to play a crucial role in the future development of transport, currently it lacks strong relations with urban mobility planning. Most types of plans such as SUMPs do not include operative references to Automation, overlooking strategic guidelines or useful measures to integrate this theme into the future vision of mobility. Such a lack represents a missed opportunity, since Automation could stimulate a more collective-oriented mobility paradigm and reduce most of the negative externalities generated by transport. The aim of this contribution is to highlight the importance for transport planning to start dealing with this process in a more rigorous way. For this purpose, the potential effects that Automation may have on transport and land use are summarized in three main types of scenarios. Then, a series of goals are identified, policy recommendations are provided, and exemplificative best practices as well as virtuous urban mobility plans are described.