During my stay in Dresden Technical University I have focused on road design, sustainable mobility and changes in transportation and travel. I took part in MORE () project where the main idea is to develop roadspace design for sustainable and environment-oriented cities. I studied the changes in travel behavior during COVID-19 pandemic, the affects of the pandemic on transportation systems and possible solutions to the challenges we as a society faced. The project provides exchange of knowledge, solutions and for me the opportunity to participate in project seminars and conferences.
It is now clear that one of the most important parts of achieving sustainable future is transportation. There are many projects and visions of the future sustainable transportation systems – we research, plan, theories and adapt to ongoing technological progress. One of the possible solutions might be automated vehicle implementation in our lives.
It is not clear whether the automated vehicles will have the positive impact on the cities overall transportation systems and sustainable future, that is why we need additional research on possible solutions and advantages and disadvantages of such technology. As a part of the NaMAV project (Sustainable Mobility and Urban Development Qualities through Automation in Traffic) we look more in depth of the future of our cities. As a part of the project, my contribution will be The Delphi survey which is carried out in Techniche Universitat Dresden, the conception and evaluation of the study and, in particular, the implementation of the survey in Latvia and Riga and other countries. This will involve two rounds of questions, where the participants – about 10 experts from different fields will be asked to complete an online question sheet about their views and experiences in relation to automated vehicles. The question sheet will be comprised of ‘semi-structured’ questions each time. The respondents will be asked to complete and return the question sheet within one week, electronically. All responses will be compiled together and analyzed as a group. They will then be asked to repeat this process and fill out and return an online question sheet one more time. Respondents will be sent an anonymized summary of the results of each round of questions, thus providing them with an opportunity to see early findings of the study. The aim is for the Delphi exercise to understand the challenges and downsides as well as potential of the introduction of automated vehicles to the public and its role in the world’s sustainability goals and find out stakeholders’ opinion on sustainable mobility, city’s possibilities, and automated vehicles role in the future mobility development.