Autonomous cars could worsen traffic: new research

• Autonomous cars may eventually eliminate the need for personal vehicles, but they can not reduce traffic congestion
• A new study from the Journal of Transportation Policy suggests that traffic could become even worse as autonomous cars drive empty in the streets waiting for their next driver.
• The results could be more interesting for those seeking to apply congestion taxes in more cities.

Where does your autonomous car go after it has dropped you off?

That's the question that Adam Millard-Ball wanted to answer in his latest research – and the results of his investigation could throw cold water on some of the promised benefits of autonomous cars.

As the professor of environmental studies at the University of California at Santa Cruz says in his research book due to appear next month in the Journal of Transportation Policy, autonomous vehicles have three choices in driving behavior between rides: parking, going home, or circling aimlessly to kill time.

"In practice, the decisions of the AV regarding the parking place and the place of parking or cruising are likely to be motivated by economic considerations," says the newspaper. And the cheapest option is likely to be a cruise for more than 40% of trips, according to Millard-Ball.

Read more: Waymo One pbadengers reveal what it really is like to drive in Alphabet self-driving taxis

Circulating aimlessly while waiting for their next trip means not having to feed a meter, which would be difficult without human pbadengers anyway. In order to reduce costs, this driving is also likely to be performed at low speeds.

"Cruises, counter-intuitively, would have a greater impact on congestion than on vehicle travel, since recreational recreational vehicles have the incentive to travel as slowly as possible and would therefore travel relatively slowly. kilometers, "Millard-Ball writes.

Audiovisual vehicles are one more reason for congestion pricing

The idea of ​​charging drivers to enter a central business district or congested area is starting to make its way to the United States, especially in places like New York and Los Angeles. Millard-Ball believes that autonomous cars will only exacerbate the need for such a system.

If cars can avoid parking fees by cruising, monitoring the parking enforcement or simply moving according to the programmed areas, a congestion charge may be the only way.

"The behavior of autonomous vehicles in the field of parking would land cities with a double blow," said Millard-Ball. "A dramatic decrease in the cost of parking, which encourages more car travel and more vehicle travel and congestion badociated with each trip, due to cruising, returning home and free movement in the streets."

In London, one of the best examples of promoters success is that the total volume of traffic dropped by 10% after the implementation of the charge and generated GBP 1.2 billion for the first time. transport agency of the region. Millard-Ball offers a two-level structure: a fee for the use of a public right of way in addition to a fee based on distance or on the fee based on energy to take into account the "other externalities" involved in driving.

"Congestion pricing has an economic sense in any urban future," said Millard-Ball. "But more in a world of autonomous vehicles."