Published 18 November 2022 at 14.47
Domestic. If self-driving vehicles become common features on the streets in the future, fewer will choose to walk or cycle, while emissions will increase. A new research study shows that.
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– More people will take the car even for shorter distances such as to school and the grocery store. And the combination of reduced everyday exercise and increased pollution leads to poorer public health, says KTH researcher Erik Almlöf.
Earlier research into self-driving technology has focused on how the technology can be realized, and on whether it will be able to facilitate work commuting.
– Instead, we concluded that it is leisure travel that is most affected by the self-driving vehicle traffic of the future. It is of course positive that people can more easily travel to friends or leisure activities, but it can also have negative consequences in society, says PhD student Erik Almlöf at the ITRL lab at KTH.
According to the current study, it is especially housing in suburbs and municipalities close to the city who may choose the self-driving technology if it becomes an easily accessible means of transport.
And it is children and young people who will increasingly be able to choose to ride with self-driving vehicles instead of walking or cycle.
– I think no one wants a future where, for example, children always choose to easily go to school or friends in a self-driving car instead of cycling. Children must be given every chance to move, says Erik Almlöf in a dispatch.
In the light of the research study's results, he wants to urge politicians and decision-makers to prioritize more comprehensive urban planning over independent transport planning.
– As a society, we have to think about how we actually want to use the self-driving technology. We cannot ban car traffic, it has its place. But pedestrian and bicycle traffic also has its own, and gives positive side effects.