Ridesharing, Active Travel Behavior, and Personal Health: Implications for Shared Autonomous Vehicles

Autonomous vehicles (AVs) have been argued to have both positive and negative impacts on public health. Most important benefits relate to a reduction of injuries and fatalities from traffic crashes, and decrease in pollutant emissions. On the other hand, AVs can limit opportunities for daily activity and associated health benefits. Additionally, if the adoption of this technology is not properly planned, it could likely lead to increases in vehicle-miles traveled (VMT) as AVs may provide mobility for those too young to drive, the elderly and the disabled. This would result in both reduced physical activity and increased air pollution, leading to non-communicable diseases, which are responsible for two-third of all deaths globally. Although there has been much research on the safety impacts of AVs, the potential implications of AVs on active travel behavior and personal health outcomes such as physical activity and obesity rates are not well understood to date. This project will assess the relationship between ridesharing (as a proxy for shared travel behavior), and active travel behavior (often measured as the number of trips made by walking or biking), and identify personal health-related outcomes expected due to the adoption of shared AVs (SAVs). Strategies to better capitalize the benefits and mitigate the adverse impacts that this technology could bring will be also offered.

Language

• English

Project

• Status: Completed
• Funding: $150,000 (CCAT $75k;JTRP $59k; Singapore $16k)
• Contract Numbers:

  69A3551747105

• Sponsor Organizations:

  Department of Transportation

  Intelligent Transportation Systems Joint Program Office
  1200 New Jersey Avenue, SE
  Washington, DC  United States  20590
• Managing Organizations:

  Center for Connected and Automated Transportation

  University of Michigan Transportation Research Institute
  Ann Arbor, MI  United States  48109
• Project Managers:

  Tucker-Thomas, Dawn

• Performing Organizations:

  Purdue University, Lyles School of Civil Engineering

  550 Stadium Mall Drive
  West Lafayette, IN  United States  47907
• Principal Investigators:

  Gkritza, Konstantina

• Start Date: 20190101
• Expected Completion Date: 20221231
• Actual Completion Date: 20230307
• USDOT Program: University Transportation Centers Program
• Subprogram: Research

Subject/Index Terms

• TRT Terms: Autonomous land vehicles; Autonomous vehicles; Health; Pollutants; Public health; Ridesharing; Traffic crashes; Travel behavior
• Subject Areas: Data and Information Technology; Design; Policy; Transportation (General); Vehicles and Equipment;

Filing Info

• Accession Number: 01742711
• Record Type: Research project
• Source Agency: Center for Connected and Automated Transportation
• Contract Numbers: 69A3551747105
• Files: UTC, RIP
• Created Date: Jun 18 2020 10:23AM