PJA have been working with City Science on the Roads for the Future competition.
City Science were shortlisted for this innovation prize to consider how to deliver a world-class road network in the UK ready for connected and autonomous vehicles (CAV). Launched in January 2018, Roads for the Future sought ideas for preparing the UK’s road network for CAVs. Five shortlisted entries were identified and provided with funding to develop their ideas.
The City Science entry examined how sections of existing roads could be dedicated to driverless cars, making it easier to manage any risk and integrate CAVs into the existing transport network, potentially allowing their usage for certain trips and routes much earlier.
PJA have been working with City Science to develop a set of typologies, different applications for segregated CAV technology depending on the type of journey and demand.
These typologies are identified as:
- Passenger First Mile
- Passenger Last Mile
- Business Parks/Campuses
- Major Events/Dynamic Lanes
- Motorway Cruise Lanes
- Autonomous Vehicle Rapid Transit (AVRT)
- Freight (including Last Mile and Cruise Lanes)
Each typology has been considered by PJA from a street design, carriageway allocation and operational perspective to demonstrate how various CAV solutions could be introduced at a relatively early stage to the existing highway under particular circumstances.
The primary focus has been upon how CAV technology can be used to facilitate short trips within town centres (first and last mile) along with the establishment of AVRT lanes on key corridors and the use of existing Smart Motorway technology to introduce CAV ‘Cruise’ lanes to the strategic road network.
A series of case studies and example real world applications have been developed to illustrate the potential for the different typologies and the timescales within which such technology could be introduced.
