Planning for sustainable mobility in the era of connected and autonomous vehicles: research perspectives, methods and tools

Prof. Pierluigi Coppola
Università degli Studi di Roma “Tor Vergata”

The latest technological innovations are rapidly and radically transforming the transport sector,
creating the base for mobility solutions which, accompanied by cultural and socio-economic changes, open to new future scenarios that are still difficult to predict, but are gradually coming to the fore. Research in the field of transport technological innovation is focused on three main
areas: electrification, connectivity, and automation. In fact, future mobility will be characterized
by an extensive use of Electric, Connected and Automated Vehicles (E-CAVs) and by roads
adequately equipped to accommodate them (Smart Roads). This may offer new solutions to
better manage traffic flows and increase infrastructure capacity, and to promote the use of
sustainable and seamless multimodal transport solutions. However, some researchers fear the
risk of an overall increase in road congestion, higher energy consumption, polluting emissions,
visual intrusion and land use expenditure. Therefore, the broad spectrum of potential impacts must
be carefully assessed against the changes that these systems will bring to the mobility scenario,
also in terms of impacts on land use, social inclusion, and other externalities. To fully exploit the
opportunities offered by new technologies, infrastructures, services, and regulation on transport ought to be designed aiming not only at improving efficiency but also at higher sustainable development goals such as air quality, safety and social cohesion.
The seminar will firstly present an overview of the undergoing transport innovations and of the
integrated actions to optimize their impacts on the Transport-Land use-Environment system. Some
models for integrated transport planning in the era of automation and connected driving will then be
presented, with applications to technologically advanced scenarios.

Contact and registration: phd-dmec@polimi.it