CAVs and new mobility services are becoming increasingly available and they are challenging decades of government policy, as well as the fundamental assumptions of transportation and land-use planning. These technologies and services, and, in particular, the potential of these technologies and services, is creating great uncertainty with regards to future travel demand, travel behaviour, vehicle ownership and the safety and capacity of transportation systems. 

One of the key elements in providing efficient transportations systems is  that they are space efficient. After prioritizing walking and cycling in cities, this will require simultaneous sharing of vehicles, thus decreasing the current sharp boundaries between private vehicles, taxis and public transit services. 
Robust planning strategies can no longer ignore these implications. Through internal and external research and process development, WSP is establishing methods to help agencies proactively develop policies and evaluate scenarios for various advanced technology futures. 

In the US, our experts are working in multiple sites and with numerous partners, such as in Maryland and Michigan, where WSP is responsible for developing and deploying the roadside infrastructure that communicates with vehicles being tested at MCity, one of the few testing campuses in the world dedicated to CAV technology.

In the UK, WSP is the CAV Project Implementation Partner for Highways England, enabling the development of a world class ecosystem for CAV deployment. WSP is also well positioned as leading advisors on electric vehicle policy, charging infrastructure provision and implementation of low emission zones. Ian Patey, Head of Profession for Intelligent Transport in the UK said “Working alongside Highways England, Transport for London and Kent County Council to create connected corridors is the first exciting step in embracing new technology and services in road travel.” 

WSP published a guide that assists government officials in determining the necessary infrastructure and policy changes brought by the advent of CAVs.

In Australia, WSP is working with partners to understand how the introduction of CAVswill affect road operators. We are also participating in route assessments for fully automated, driverless buses. 

WSP has a long history designing pricing and regulatory frameworks, from incentivizing the uptake of cleaner vehicles to congestion charging. New mobility services, as represented by mobility as a service, will create multimodal packages of offerings, which will inherently bring new pricing models for transportation and an associated  need for  public sector  response.

The pricing of individual mobility services by private suppliers and the interplay between those and societal incentives and market regulations will together determine what travel choices will be made by individual consumers and on an aggregated level how efficient the transport system will be. Simultaneously, with a need for holistic pricing policies over different modes, it is important to realize that existing policies may not be effective for their intended purpose in the future. Car ownership and fuel taxes, as well as parking charges, may lose their effectiveness. New technology, even in mobility pricing, has a role to play. 

Roadside Infrastructure: We design and specify the roadside infrastructure that enables connectivity between vehicles – V2V & V2I 

Telecommunications Expertise: We provide the telecommunications expertise that supports CAV applications and services, including EV charging and payment for services. 

Data Management, Warehousing and Integration: We design and operate systems that manage large volumes of data from connected vehicles and translate that data into usable information for transportation management centers and/or agency-specific applications. 

Systems Design & integration: We specify, design and integrate the systems that enable connected, autonomous and electric vehicles and services to function—combined with the systems needed for payments and sharing. 

Connected, Autonomous and Ultra Low Emissions Vehicles (ULEVs) all have the potential to disrupt current models for operating road and network operations. Their introduction to transport networks has implications on the safe operation of those networks.

At WSP we have developed models to consider the operational and safety implications of CAV and ULEV on transport networks that enable road authorities to plan for their introduction—by considering the overall system rather than individual elements. The balanced framework approach allows the potential positive and negative impacts of these disruptive technologies to be assessed in an objective manner, considering, for example, how existing infrastructure may need to be adapted or replaced. In the UK. we have used this approach for the first real-life connected corridors and a trial of truck platooning.