Transport and Covid-19: responses and resources

Preparing Transport Infrastructure for Autonomous Mobility Working Group

The Working Group seeks to reach agreement between different infrastructure providers around the world, and with industry, about what the focus areas are for investing in infrastructure to support the introduction of autonomous travel. This extends beyond physical infrastructure and covers data, digital and institutional factors; and respects the difference between different jurisdictions.

The prospect of autonomous travel has been one of the most exciting ideas in transport policy in the past decade. Yet in spite of much examination, there is little global consensus about how infrastructure providers can invest in making their networks ready for a new type of traffic. Nor do policymakers have a good understanding of what would best help developers and industry get their innovations into use on real-world roads.

The Working Group considers both urban settings and highway transport, and focus on both individual and public transport. Furthermore, it seeks to align the consideration of infrastructure support levels for automated driving with other emerging mobility trends, which will also demand infrastructure adjustments such as alternative engine technologies and digitally mediated transport services, particularly in cities (e.g. Mobility as a Service).

The Working Group serves as a 18-month platform for discussion among relevant policy makers, together with members of the ITF Corporate Partnership Board and experts to push forward the research agenda on and produce recommendations for preparing transport infrastructure for autonomous mobility.

The Working Group is expected to publish a report in autumn 2021 with research and evidence by developing an analytical framework, based on two dimensions: the nature of the infrastructure and the timeframe.

Three ITF reports provide background:

  • ITF (2018) Safer Roads with Automated Vehicles? The report examines how increasing automation of cars and trucks could affect road safety, and which security vulnerabilities will need to be addressed with the rise of self-driving vehicles.

 Contact 

For more information, please contact Véronique Feypell