Providing Public Transport by Self-Driving Vehicles: User Preferences, Fleet Operation, and Parking Management

Self-driving vehicles could make the operation of public transport services in a more flexible manner more affordable. Introducing shared automated vehicles would al¬low operating a fleet of smaller vehicles in a demand responsive manner. This could potentially impact the way we use and operate public transport services, which could eventually trigger changes in car ownership and land use. The main objective of this dissertation is to understand better what it means to deploy shared automat¬ed vehicles for on-demand public transport services. This is analysed from the per¬spective of three main stakeholders: (1) the user preferences of potential users, (2) the fleet operation supervised by the fleet manager, (3) and potential parking man¬agement strategies issued by a transport authority concerned with the introduction of shared automated vehicles.