Understanding consumer demand for new transport technologies and services, and implications for the future of mobility

The transport sector is witnessing unprecedented levels of disruption. Privately owned cars that operate on internal combustion engines have been the dominant modes of passenger transport for much of the last century. However, recent advances in transport technologies and services, such as the development of autonomous vehicles, the emergence of shared mobility services, and the commercialization of alternative fuel vehicle technologies, promise to revolutionise how humans travel. The implications are profound: some have predicted the end of private car dependent Western societies, others have portended greater suburbanization than has ever been observed before. If transport systems are to fulfil current and future needs of different subpopulations, and satisfy short and long-term societal objectives, it is imperative that we comprehend the many factors that shape individual behaviour. This chapter introduces the technologies and services most likely to disrupt prevailing practices in the transport sector. We review past studies that have examined current and future demand for these new technologies and services, and their likely short and long-term impacts on extant mobility patterns. We conclude with a summary of what these new technologies and services might mean for the future of mobility.Comment: 15 pages, 0 figures, book chapte

BASIC: Towards a Blockchained Agent-Based SImulator for Cities

Autonomous Vehicles (AVs), drones and robots will revolutionize our way of travelling and understanding urban space. In order to operate, all of these devices are expected to collect and analyze a lot of sensitive data about our daily activities. However, current operational models for these devices have extensively relied on centralized models of managing these data. The security of these models unveiled significant issues. This paper proposes BASIC, the Blockchained Agent-based Simulator for Cities. This tool aims to verify the feasibility of the use of blockchain in simulated urban scenarios by considering the communication between agents through smart contracts. In order to test the proposed tool, we implemented a car-sharing model within the city of Cambridge (Massachusetts, USA). In this research, the relevant literature was explored, new methods were developed and different solutions were designed and tested. Finally, conclusions about the feasibility of the combination between blockchain technology and agent-based simulations were drawn