Overview
We are facing a paradigm shift in transport and mobility, with vehicles becoming increasingly connected, electrified and automated. In parallel, new mobility trends are increasingly emerging, e.g.: Mobility as a Service (MaaS) and shared mobility models.
The socio-economic and environmental impacts from these different (but entangled) trends could be overwhelmingly positive (e.g. reducing accidents, congestion, emissions). However, if the transition from the current status to the future mobility system is not done in a thoughtful way, it could lead to negative outcomes. Existing studies anticipate that Connected and Automated Vehicle (CAV) technologies may boost road travel as a result of the most favourable travel conditions and new groups of users (e.g. elderly, disabled, young).
In future scenarios (especially in the event of substantial increases in travel demand), traffic management would need to play a decisive role in enabling a safe and efficient mobility, with increased control possibilities offered by a Connected, Coordinated and Automated Road Transport (C2ART) system.
The Joint Research Centre (JRC) is investigating the impacts of CAV technologies through a combined approach based on traffic modelling and simulation, desk research and stakeholders’ consultation. Some preliminary results of this research have been published in specialised conferences and a JRC Science for Policy report titled “The r-evolution of driving: from Connected Vehicles to Coordinated Automated Road Transport (C-ART*)” has been recently delivered: http://publications.jrc.ec.europa.eu/repository/bitstream/JRC106565/art_science_for_policy_report_1-soa_final_tobepublished_online.pdf
In addition, a stakeholders’ workshop on challenges and opportunities of C2ART was organized in Brussels on 12-13 June 2017 with the active participation of many of the main actors involved in this transformation.
*later on renamed as C2ART