Transport-policy instruments in the age of autonomous vehicles in motorized private transport
Final Report Abstract
Background: Although at the time of applying for the proposal, research on advanced vehicle automation – with fully self-driving (driverless) cars as the final stage, was still in its infancy, various seminal contributions had already made projections about a number of potentially disruptive changes to our transportation system with the advent of fully autonomous vehicles (AVs). For example, with an AV, travelers are no longer obliged to engage in driver-related tasks (monitoring the road, accelerating, braking etc.) but can spend time working, sleeping, watching a movie etc., while being driven. Also, travelers are no longer forced to park their cars in the vicinity of their destination – usually downtown, where land has its highest societal value – and pay for parking. Instead, they could program their car to return home, just cruise, or self-drive to a location where parking is cheaper or free. Main intention of the proposal: What sounds promising at first sight is not free of disadvantages. First and foremost, these and other advanced autonomous vehicle features (will) make private passenger transport more attractive, encouraging private car ownership and increasing travel demand. In such an altered environment, the classical policy instruments that have been developed, analyzed, and discussed by transportation scientists over the last decades (e.g., parking fees, fuel taxes, congestion tolls, speed limits) to tackle transport-related problems (e.g., congestion, accidents, pollution, land devoted to parking) might no longer be as effective and efficient as in a world of conventional (human-driven) vehicles, or might even become obsolete. This may have serious consequences, as poorly adapted traditional policy instruments to the era of autonomous cars will likely be accompanied by significant welfare losses. Main finding: Our analyses on a wide range of AV-related topics, e.g., driverless vehicle repositioning to avoid parking, in-vehicle time use, and charging electric AV, suggest that policy instruments in the transport sector will continue to be essential for ensuring efficiency and that the design of optimal transportation policy in private passenger transport likely becomes more complex. Even though traditional policy instruments (e.g., fuel taxes, congestion tolls, parking fees, speed limit) remain basically valid, they change in structure, the (quantitative) level of optimality, and the circumstances under which they can be seen as worth implementing from a social welfare perspective. Overall, our results highlight the need to reconsider the set of policy instruments that are available steadily to make them applicable to the world of autonomous cars. Otherwise, decision-makers are prone to take non-optimal or even welfare-reducing policy actions.
Publications
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On employer-paid parking and parking (cash-out) policy: A formal synthesis of different perspectives. Transport Policy, 110, 499-516.
Tscharaktschiew, Stefan & Reimann, Felix
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Less workplace parking with fully autonomous vehicles?. Journal of Intelligent and Connected Vehicles, 5(3), 283-301.
Tscharaktschiew, Stefan & Reimann, Felix
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Optimal Transport Pricing in an Age of Fully Autonomous Vehicles: Is It Getting More Complicated?. Future Transportation, 2(2), 347-364.
Tscharaktschiew, Stefan & Evangelinos, Christos
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Repositioning of driverless cars: Is return to home rather than downtown parking economically viable?. Transportation Research Interdisciplinary Perspectives, 13, 100547.
Tscharaktschiew, Stefan; Reimann, Felix & Evangelinos, Christos
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Langfristige Herausforderungen für die Verkehrsinfrastruktur in Deutschland. Wirtschaftsdienst, 103(6), 376–379.
Hirte, Georg & Tscharaktschiew, Stefan
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The economics of speed choice and control in the presence of driverless vehicle cruising and parking-as-a-substitute-for-cruising. Transportation Research Part B: Methodological, 178, 102834.
Tscharaktschiew, Stefan & Reimann, Felix
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Working from self-driving cars. Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice, 176, 103785.
Hirte, Georg; Laes, Renée & Gerike, Regine
