LINC - Transforming Urban Planning Providing Autonomous Collective mobility

Funder: European Union Urban Innovative Actions (UIA) | Partners: Technical University of Denmark (DTU), Albertslund Municipality

🏙️ The Challenge

The project identified several key challenges over time. Initially, the expectations for self-driving technology were high, but the project faced significant hurdles:

• Legislative Readiness: Getting legal permission to operate self-driving shuttles on public roads was a long and cumbersome process, identified as the hardest challenge. The need for site-specific applications is a barrier to upscaling.
• Technical & Financial Sustainability: It became clear that operating without a safety driver was not legally possible at the time. The cost of safety drivers challenges the financial viability of such services, especially in less dense areas where demand may not cover operational costs.

🚀 The Solution

The LINC project aimed to let innovative solutions support a shift from private cars to more sustainable, shared mobility modes.

• Autonomous Bus Trial: LINC conducted one of Denmark's very first trials with autonomous buses operating on public streets at the DTU campus. This served as a first/last mile service to expand the utility of the upcoming Ring 3 Light Rail.
• Smart Sensing Platform: The project developed a smartphone sensing platform and an app using Bluetooth beacons to monitor users’ mobility patterns, providing smart services to users and operators.
• Policy Recommendations: The project delivered recommendations for improving the Danish approval process for automated vehicles, many of which influenced the decision to extend the pilot scheme for AVs.

🌍 Impact & Takeaways

The project concluded with three main takeaways for future urban mobility:

1. Holistic Innovation: For technical innovation to have impact, it must be accompanied by developments in user behaviour, business models, city planning, and legislation.
2. New Business Models: Shared first/last mile services are crucial for sustainable suburbs, but they require new business models (e.g., public-private collaborations involving property development) to be financially viable.
3. Resilient Projects: Innovation projects should be set up so that "being wrong" does not mean failing. LINC showed that even if the original goal of unmanned operation wasn't fully met, the project delivered massive value through its sensing platform and legislative contributions.

📚 Output

Publications

• Peled, I., Lee, K., Jiang, Y., Dauwels, J., & Pereira, F. C. (2021). On the quality requirements of demand prediction for dynamic public transport. Communications in Transportation Research, 1, 100008.
• Lee, K., Jiang, Y., Ceder, A. A., Dauwels, J., Su, R., & Nielsen, O. A. (2022). Path-oriented synchronized transit scheduling using time-dependent data. Transportation Research Part C: Emerging Technologies, 136, 103505.