Regulatory and strategic issues of automated driving in mixed traffic flow

Abstract

Road authorities and transport planners play a role in facilitating a smooth introduction of (partially) automated vehicles1 on their roads. They need to take their possible effects and requirements into account, as well as regulation that may be needed. It is expected that a mix of conventional and automated vehicles will be present on the roads for many decades to come. The increasing levels of automation influence the performance of traffic flow. There will also be safety and environmental impacts. These aspects are considered in the accompanying document ‘Next steps in describing possible effects of automated driving on traffic flow’ by TrafficQuest (Calvert, Wilmink, and Farah 2016). In this memo, a closer look is taken at the challenges that exist on a regulatory and strategic level. These are issues that refer to required and desired preparations for, consequences of, and challenges involving existing resources and infrastructure for automated vehicles on roads in mixed traffic. The described challenges are considered for the case in the Netherlands and mainly focus on areas in which there are significant unanswered questions and on which decisions still need to be made by policy makers or road authorities. (Questions related to standardisation have not been included here.) The challenges will require (facilitative) action from road planners and operators. The list is a summary of the main challenges that are relevant for the situation in the Netherlands, grouped in the following categories:
· physical infrastructure
· road regulations
· digital infrastructure
· approach to network operations and traffic management
· vehicle capabilities