Research shows how roads can be greener with driverless vehicles

The move to wrest the controls from human drivers is gaining traction.

(AP) - Urban design experts at the University of Minnesota are redrawing what city blocks could look like in a world of driverless vehicles.

Roads of the future will likely be narrower, greener and easier to share with pedestrians once autonomous vehicles evolve from the drawing boards and testing roads of automakers and tech firms to widespread use on city streets.

The move to wrest the controls from human drivers is gaining traction. The university has just received a $1.75 million grant from the National Science Foundation to further study autonomous vehicles and the future of transportation services.

State agencies are testing the technology, and Minneapolis and St Paul city officials are factoring in the potential impact of autonomous vehicles as they draft plans to guide development over the next two decades.

This summer, researchers at the Minnesota Design Centre focused on locations like the intersection of Lexington Parkway and Marshall Avenue in St Paul and the parking lot for the Kmart store on Lake Street in Minneapolis as they explore the impact autonomous vehicles could have on street design in the Twin Cities.

Already, researchers see big potential in an anticipated ability of autonomous vehicles to follow more precise paths, allowing roads to be much narrower, freeing up land for other purposes. Car sharing may increase, allowing back alleys to be redeveloped into pocket parks. Parking lots could become wetlands or ponds.

“You can start to do other things in the street like literally have picnic tables or community gardens or playgrounds, things you wouldn’t even imagine putting next to a street or public right of way is now possible,” said Thomas Fisher, director of the Minnesota Design Centre and one of the lead researchers for the Shared Autonomous Vehicle Street Design study.

Fully autonomous vehicles are expected to be available to consumers by 2025, according to a study by the National League of Cities.

Last winter, the Minnesota Department of Transportation tested an autonomous shuttle bus to see how it responded to cold-weather conditions. Among the conclusions noted by researchers in a June report was that the shuttle’s wheels did not wander much on multiple trips.

These predictable paths mean driverless vehicles don’t need as much space on the road, said Fisher.

“That allows the rest of the surface of the street to be what we call pervious surface, which could be grass or gravel or ground cover or what have you, which then also allows water instead of water having to be shed to gutters and curbs and storm sewers,” Fisher said.