This paper explores the impacts that autonomous (also called self-driving, driverless or robotic) vehicles are likely to have on travel demands and transportation planning. It discusses autonomous vehicle benefits and costs, predicts their likely development and implementation based on experience with previous vehicle technologies, and explores how they will affect planning decisions such as optimal road, parking and public transit supply. The analysis indicates that some benefits, such as independent mobility for affluent non-drivers, may begin in the 2020s or 2030s, but most impacts, including reduced traffic and parking congestion (and therefore road and parking facility supply requirements), independent mobility for low-income people (and therefore reduced need to subsidize transit), increased safety, energy conservation and pollution reductions, will only be significant when autonomous vehicles become common and affordable, probably in the 2040s to 2060s, and some benefits may require prohibiting human-driven vehicles on certain roadways, which could take longer.

/pdf/autonomous-vehicle-implementation-predictions-implications-3cicqead0t.pdf

Autonomous Vehicle Implementation Predictions: Implications for Transport Planning

https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/pdf/10.1080/15472450.2017.1291351

Policy and society related implications of automated driving: A review of literature and directions for future research

E-fulfillment and multi-channel distribution – A review

Today, around 54% of the world’s population lives in urban areas. By 2050, this share is expected to go up significantly. As a result, city logistics, which focuses on the efficient and effective transportation of goods in urban areas while taking into account the negative effects on congestion, safety, and environment, is critical to ensuring continued quality of life in cities. We review and discuss a variety of current and anticipated challenges and opportunities of city logistics. We hope this helps shaping an appropriate research agenda and stimulates more researchers to enter this exciting field.

/pdf/50th-anniversary-invited-article-city-logistics-challenges-640lyqmsq8.pdf

50th Anniversary Invited Article—City Logistics: Challenges and Opportunities

Tire wear particles in the aquatic environment - A review on generation, analysis, occurrence, fate and effects.

In Europe, shopping habits have changed fast during the last decade and a high percentage of consumers now shop online. E-commerce for physical goods generates a significant demand for dedicated delivery services, and results in increasingly difficult last mile logistics. In particular home delivery services, which are usually the preferred option by the online consumers, contribute to the atomization of parcel flows thus causing particular problems within the urban areas. However, alternative delivery solutions are growing fast, especially in metropolitan areas The purpose of this article is to compare the alternatives to home delivery that have been developed by French and German parcel delivery operators which developed pick-up points in stores and automated lockers networks. The paper includes an analysis of the key drivers of the development of the two emblematic delivery services (pick-up points and lockers), with reference to the strategies of service providers and e-commerce firms as well as consumer preferences.

The impact of e-commerce on final deliveries: alternative parcel delivery services in France and Germany

Transport mode use during the COVID-19 lockdown period in Germany: The car became more important, public transport lost ground

Mobilität in Deutschland

Theoretical and empirical research about the impact of information and communication technologies (ICT) on transport relies on the hypothesis that ICT use leads to a reorganization of activities in time and space thus having as a consequence impacts on travel behavior. The breaking up of activities into discrete pieces by the use of ICT is the starting point of the fragmentation concept that underlies the present article. The concept argues that transport demand increases by the fragmentation of activities and explores the relevant mechanisms for this process. In all, however, the concept is still rather vague. Therefore, the authors discuss some elements of the concept on a theoretical level, in particular the question why individuals “fragment” their activities. In the empirical section they use a data set about activities, ICT use and travel behavior in Germany to find out how far an activity like work, which is particularly apt for fragmentation, shows signs of temporal and spatial disintegration. With the help of a cluster analysis they identify groups with different “fragmentation behavior” and investigate if a statistically significant relation exists between fragmentation behavior and ICT use. Accordingly, the focus of the article lies on the impact of ICT use on the performance of activities by different behavioral groups. The link to travel behavior is made by examining mode choices for different purposes and travel related attitudes.

The Changing Allocation of Activities in Space and Time by the Use of ICT—“Fragmentation” as a New Concept and Empirical Results

Mit der Studie „Mobilitat in Deutschland 2008“ – kurz „MiD
2008“ – wird es erstmals moglich, die Mobilitatsentwicklung
in Deutschland anhand einer umfangreichen und thematisch
breiten Datengrundlage im Langsschnitt zu betrachten.
Fur alle 16 Bundeslander ebenso wie fur differenzierte
Regionstypen liegt nunmehr eine Datenreihe vor, die uber
das Bilden von Kennzahlen hinaus eine differenzierte
Betrachtung der Mobilitat der Bevolkerung erlaubt, auch
im direkten Vergleich zu 2002. Denn die MiD 2008 stellt in
weiten Teilen eine Aktualisierung der MiD 2002 dar.
Der umfangreiche Ergebnisbericht, der auch im Internet
unter www.mobilitaet-in-deutschland.de verfugbar ist, zeigt
die Ergebnisse zur Mobilitat 2008 auf, zu einem grosen
Teil auch schon mit ersten vertiefenden Auswertungen,
die einen detaillierten Einblick in das raumliche Mobilitatsverhalten
von unterschiedlichen Bevolkerungsgruppen in
unterschiedlichen Regionen Deutschlands geben. Der hier
vorliegende Kurzbericht gibt einen schnellen und doch
breiten Uberblick uber die wesentlichen Ergebnisse der
Mobilitat heute und die aktuell erkennbaren Trends.

Barbara Lenz

Papers

The impact of e-commerce on final deliveries: alternative parcel delivery services in France and Germany

Transport mode use during the COVID-19 lockdown period in Germany: The car became more important, public transport lost ground

Mobilität in Deutschland

The Changing Allocation of Activities in Space and Time by the Use of ICT—“Fragmentation” as a New Concept and Empirical Results

Mobilität in Deutschland 2008