Understanding stakeholders’ evaluation of autonomous vehicle services complementing public transport in an urban context

Autonomous vehicles present opportunities for highly integrated multi-modal urban mobility services. This study reports on the evaluation of autonomous services that can be integrated with the existing public transport network. The autonomous services considered are first/last mile feeders, on-demand point-to-point service, robo-taxis, autonomous car-sharing and Bus Rapid Transit. In this evaluation, the views of users, public transport operators, public transport authorities and mobility service providers are taken into account. An in-depth understanding of the objectives for each stakeholder group is needed in order to assess the impact of new mobility services. Representatives from each stakeholder group were consulted to evaluate autonomous vehicle scenarios. Using the multi-actor multi-criteria analysis method, stakeholder criteria were weighted and overall performance scores per scenario were calculated. The results show that users are positive towards all autonomous scenarios. For public transport operators all scenarios perform well, except car-sharing. Public transport authorities believe in the benefits of on-demand point-to-point services, first/last mile feeders and Bus Rapid transit. Mobility service providers value the flexible services most. The insights can be applied to evaluate the business models of public transport operators and mobility service providers and used to shape urban transport policies.