Cities are adopting tolling and closed-loop shuttle buses to mitigate traffic, to integrate AVs into public transit, and to prepare for the possibility that AVs used in ride-hailing could exacerbate urban congestion.
The big picture: Reducing congestion in densely populated, trafficked metro areas will require distributing people more strategically across transit options and routes.
What's happening:
What we're watching: Two tools for managing traffic could be especially helpful when AVs are eventually deployed, and could complement existing efforts.
Congestion pricing, as New York has proposed, uses tolling to dissuade vehicles from entering certain districts during select hours. In London, Singapore and Stockholm, electronic mechanisms mounted above roads and highways collect fees as cars approach the center of the city.
Optimization software can distribute vehicles across various routes, like Waze does today, to help alleviate congestion.
The bottom line: Cities will need to take multiple approaches to addressing congestion and encouraging new transportation patterns in advance of AVs. The cities starting to experiment now will likely be best positioned to adapt.
Jim Barbaresso is SVP of intelligent transportation systems at HNTB, an infrastructure advisory firm.
