Report: AVs and MaaS could ‘reduce traffic by 14%’

If you replace today’s traditional private car ownership with a mixture of Mobility as a Service (MaaS) and on-demand autonomous vehicles (AVs) running door-to-door, you could make dramatic cuts in city traffic, according to new research. The Oslo Study – How autonomous cars may change transport in cities shows that, “in the most optimistic scenario a reduction of 14 % traffic is possible”. But researchers warn that the traffic reduction potential “is less than estimated in previous studies from other citi
May 16, 2019 Read time: 2 mins
If you replace today’s traditional private car ownership with a mixture of Mobility as a Service (8356 MaaS) and on-demand autonomous vehicles (AVs) running door-to-door, you could make dramatic cuts in city traffic, according to new research.


The Oslo Study – How autonomous cars may change transport in cities shows that, “in the most optimistic scenario a reduction of 14 % traffic is possible”. But researchers warn that the traffic reduction potential “is less than estimated in previous studies from other cities” and it could increase if the mix is not right.

Oslo, this year’s European Green Capital, wants to reduce car use by a third before 2030.

The study was undertaken by COWI and PTV on behalf of Ruter, the Oslo regional public transport operator. Modelling a variety of scenarios, they found that traffic would get worse without ride-sharing – or if MaaS “became more attractive than traditional public transport”.

The Oslo study “assumes a very high level of service”. If users were instead happy with longer waiting times before a vehicle shows up, or would put up with longer detours, “the effect on traffic will be substantially better”, with traffic volumes reduced by up to 31%, the researchers conclude.

• Full story in the May-June issue of ITS International magazine

Related Content

  • October 3, 2018
    Copenhagen: everything's gone green
    As the ITS World Congress arrives in Copenhagen, Adam Hill finds out how Dynniq has been helping traffic flow – and CO2 reduction - in the Danish capital. Most of the time, ‘breathing easier’ is just an expression which indicates a metaphorical sigh of relief that something has worked out alright. But it can be literally true, too. Respiratory and other potential health problems which stem from pollution in the world’s increasingly urbanised environments have been well publicised and governments are
    Read More
  • August 23, 2016
    Xerox takes youthful view of future transport
    Xerox’s David Cummins talks to Colin Sowman about the lessons for city authorities from its survey of younger peoples’ attitude to transport. There can be no better way to get a handle on the future of transport demand than to ask the younger generation about how they view and consume today’s transport. Sociologists have called this group Generation Z – those born between 1995 and 2007 – which will make up 40% of all US consumers by 2020.
    Read More
  • October 10, 2018
    Pivot Power: 'We need to rethink the EV customer experience'
    Electric vehicles will increasingly become a key part of the mobility mix but charging infrastructure is currently patchy. Adam Hill talks to Matt Allen of Pivot Power about disruption, horses, slot machines – and the importance of customer experience. Electric vehicles (EVs) – including buses, taxis and cars for individual and shared use – are already a common sight on our roads. They are not yet ubiquitous. But that will come. There will be around 30 million electric cars in the world by 2030 (as they
    Read More
  • September 3, 2019
    Waymo opens AV dataset to researchers
    Waymo is making its Waymo Open Dataset for autonomous vehicles (AVs) available to the research community for free. Waymo is hoping the data will help researchers make advances in 2D and 3D perception and progress in areas such as domain adaptation and behaviour prediction. The company says each segment of driving data captures 20 seconds of continuous driving, allowing researchers to develop models to track and predict the behaviour of other road users. This dataset covers dense and suburban environmen
    Read More

Highlighted Content