Connected and Automated Vehicles

Policy and Planning

C/AV technologies and new mobility services are happening now and they’re challenging decades of standing policies, and the foundational assumptions with which we carry out long- range planning. They are creating great uncertainty with regard to future travel demand, travel behaviour, and transportation system capacity and safety.

Traditional planning strategies can no longer ignore these implications. Through internal and external research and process development, WSP is establishing methods to help agencies proactively develop policies and evaluate scenarios for various advanced technology futures.

In the US, our experts are busy working at multiple sites and with numerous partners, such as in Maryland or in Michigan, where we are responsible for developing and deploying the roadside infrastructure that communicates with vehicles being tested at Mcity, one of the few test tracks in the world dedicated to C/AV technology.

WSP published a guide that assists government officials in determining the necessary infrastructure and policy changes brought by the advent of driverless vehicles. In Australia, WSP is working with partners to understand how the introduction of automated vehicles will affect road operators. We are also participating in route assessments for fully automated and driverless buses. In Sweden, we are working closely with Drive Sweden to learn about the changes in the physical and virtual world needed to support the future of personal transport.

Here are some of the services we provide to local and state governments across the world:

• Strategic Planning and Organisational Change Management: We support agencies with developing roadmaps for CV deployment, and positioning organisations to take advantage of these systems to help meet agency objectives.
• Roadside Infrastructure Deployment: We design and deploy dedicated short-range communications (DSRC) roadside infrastructure, and work with vendors and telecommunications specialists to implement DSRC networks.
• Telecommunications Expertise: We offer telecommunications expertise in support of DSRC backhaul infrastructure, as well as for other C/AV applications that require a telecommunications backbone.
• Vehicle-to-Infrastructure (V2I) Applications: We enable messaging capabilities and data integration to support V2I applications, such as traffic signal-based messaging and integration with transit service applications.
• Data Management, Warehousing and Integration: We help to manage large volumes of data from connected vehicles and translate that data into usable information for transportation management centres and agency-specific applications.
• Asset and Configuration Management: We assist in deploying emerging technologies while being mindful of performance management tracking, ensuring that equipment functions as planned and can expand as needed.