A life-cycle decision-making framework to assess the need for autonomous mobility

Design, operation, maintenance and rehabilitation of mass mobility projects require holistic environmental, energy and monetary action; transit solutions depend on public authorities' influence over user-adoptability and sustainability. New technically advanced automated vehicles (AVs) and alternate fuel technology require consideration by planners, where such urban-settlement transportation systems are increasingly charged to be efficient, reliable, interconnected traffic pathways marked by in-out nodes able to direct people effectively. Prototype mass-transit alternative(s) choice is complex, with the infrastructure decisions largely bound to the different objectives of consumers, policy and government agencies. Three factors must be considered: user-stakeholder appraisal; and both environment; and, economic factors during the entire asset life-cycle of production, construction, operation, maintenance, rehabilitation (OM&R) and final disposal or salvage value. To assess this life-cycle impact, a new research project is presented that proposes a framework consisting of: (i) an analysis of traffic flow patterns within an intra-city settlement, addressing the suitability of any preferred alternative for direct real-world application alongside user-opinion; (ii) the life-cycle cost and environmental in/out-flows for any proposed holistic AV-based alternative(s) assessed against existing systems; and, (iii) stakeholder expert-opinion involvement through a multi-criteria decision-making (MCDM) framework assigning weightage to cost, energy and emissions. Towards this, user-preference data collected from intra-city bus passengers in Abu Dhabi notes a majority of passengers as full-time workers, in which the notion of reduced fare level and an increased network coverage was not homogenously supported, thus it is argued that municipal agency and policy-makers need to target work commutes supported by innovative solutions to enhance user-experience by reducing journey time and fluctuating service frequency around office hours. It is suggested that regional road transport system energy, cost and emission issues may be resolved by using the proposed framework that builds upon life-cycle impact strategies integrated directly into decision-analyses. It's argued that decision-making frameworks, if they are to be successfully implemented, must allow ongoing feedback loops included in this framework.