Autonomous vehicles (AV) are the wave of the future in the automobile industry, and there’s extensive discussion about the impacts on transportation, society, the economy and the environment. However, less attention has been focused on the potential health impacts of self-driving vehicles.
However, less attention has been focused on the potential health impacts of self-driving vehicles.
Texas A&M University researchers have developed a conceptual model to identify these health impacts systematically. They identified 32 transportation-related risk factors that affected health and concluded that 17 could negatively impact public health, while eight could have a positive impact. There were seven areas of uncertain implications that require further investigation.
The researchers recently published their findings in the December issue of Sustainable Cities and Society.
«A survey on the receptiveness of autonomous vehicles’ impacts showed that there is a lack of awareness of the potential health impacts of AVs and low perceptions of the importance of AV health benefits,» said Soheil Sohrabi, a doctoral student in the Zachry Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering and a graduate researcher at the Texas A&M Transportation Institute (TTI). «On the other hand, there are some unintended consequences of AVs’ implementation that need to be studied before AVs find their way onto the road.»
Sohrabi, with Dr. Dominque Lord, professor in the department and A.P. Wiley Faculty Fellow, and Dr. Haneen Khreis with TTI created a conceptual model to systematically identify the pathways through which AVs can affect public health. The proposed model summarizes the potential changes in transportation after AV implementation into seven points of impact: transportation infrastructure; land use and the built environment; traffic flow; transportation mode choice; transportation equity; and jobs related to transportation and traffic safety. The changes in transportation are then attributed to potential health impacts.
Story Source: Materials provided by Texas A&M University. Original written by Alyson Chapman. Note: Content may be edited for style and length.