Originally aired on November 3, 2021, this installment of the Division of Planning’s “Mornings with Planning” webinar series focuses on automated/autonomous vehicles. Automakers around the world are actively developing vehicles with the goal of full automation within the next 1 to 2 decades. Vehicles with some automated features have been on the market for several years and beginning this past August fully automated deliveries have been in operation on the University of Kentucky campus. The promise of vehicle automation is that they would provide significant benefits such as dramatically decreasing crash rates and resulting fatalities & serious injuries, as well as improving mobility for persons with disabilities or who otherwise cannot or are not allowed to physically operate a motor vehicle.

Automated vehicles, however, can be very disruptive to communities and their economies potentially resulting in changes to communicating patterns, land uses, and the elimination of certain occupations while at the same time creating new opportunities. Vehicle automation also provides an opportunity for communities to make significant progress in creating a more equitable transportation system and ensuring all residents benefit from the technology.

This panel will provide a primer on vehicle automation, discuss some of the more significant potential impacts and what the Lexington Region should begin considering when adopting new plans and programs in anticipation of this technology.

Our panelists:

•Tara Andringa – Partners for Automated Vehicle Education Executive Director

•Eric T. Hill – Metropolitan Orlando Director of Transportation System Management & Operations

•Christopher Evilia, AICP – City of Lexington Transportation Planning Manager and Lexington Area MPO Director