Shared Mobility Services: Prioritizing Social Good

Access to transportation is integral to enhancing opportunities for employment, education, health care, and recreation. SAVs will not fundamentally solve today's transportation challenges. To solve them, AVs require thoughtful planning and public policies that balance societal goals with commercial interests. To harness and maximize the social and environmental benefits of highly automated vehicles, we need to prepare for a multiphase transition toward highly automated vehicles today. If driver-less vehicles are thoughtfully implemented with access and social/racial equity in mind, automation could expand access to resources for users of all ages, genders, races, abilities, and incomes. However, public agencies will need to actively pursue policies to ensure that driverless vehicles do not reinforce existing disparities in access and mobility. Identifying and understanding the various transportation equity challenges related to driverless vehicles is the first step to help ensure equitable service, accessibility, and affordable transportation for all and to prevent discrimination and correct mobility injustices. In the future, it will be critical that policymakers ensure equitable SAV access for all neighbourhoods and users, including access options for people with disabilities and digitally impoverished and underbanked communities. The public and private sectors, along with key stakeholders (e.g., nongovernmental organizations, community-based organizations, and foundations) can partner to help over-come these challenges by understanding these issues and implementing tailored strategies to overcome each challenge through intentional inclusion.