The ‘Sharing Trap’: A Case Study of Societal and Stakeholder Readiness for On-Demand and Autonomous Public Transport in New South Wales, Australia

Sigma Dolins,Yale Z Wong,John D Nelson

doi:10.3390/su13179574

Sigma Dolins, Yale Z Wong + Show 1 more

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https://doi.org/10.3390/su13179574

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Abstract

Focus groups on shared, autonomous vehicles (SAVs) in New South Wales expressed “sharing anxiety”—an intense concern about the prospect of sharing their mobility journey with strangers, without a driver or authority figure present. This presents a significant barrier to the acceptance of SAVs, particularly autonomous public and on-demand transport (ODT), which is a major focus for Transport for New South Wales (TfNSW). Given this potential barrier, we interviewed (N = 13) operators, academics, and regulators with TfNSW to assess their role and abilities in overcoming sharing anxiety. However, our findings revealed a relative lack of awareness from experts in the mobility industry about the existence of sharing anxiety in users, suggesting additional barriers to adoption. We make suggestions for policy considerations for stakeholders that could mitigate sharing anxiety: promoting dynamic ridepooling products in commercial services, using tax breaks as incentivization; requiring ODT services and operators in jurisdiction to use a standardized, unified interface for users (“single-app”); shared, on-demand transport services likely need longer incubation/pilot periods in order for the sharing behavior to become culturally established. We conclude with a reflection on how COVID-19 has impacted the development of shared mobility and suggest further exploration in policy implementation.

Highlights

Accepted: 21 August 2021On-demand transportation services like Uber, providing affordable and flexible rides, have dominated public awareness in the last few years
This paper summarizes the findings from transport expert interviews with strategists, operators, academics and regulators, and looks more deeply at on-demand dynamic ridepooling policy and potential shared AV policy
The findings reported in this paper form part of a larger series of socio-technical research into factors that affect societal readiness for shared autonomous public transport at the individual and regional level, The

Summary

Introduction

On-demand transportation services like Uber, providing affordable and flexible rides, have dominated public awareness in the last few years. As development and deployment on autonomous vehicles continues, the transportation industry has been envisioning what might be the future of mobility. Despite studies confirming the need for shared autonomous vehicles (SAVs), much of the technology and vehicle industry’s focus remains on creating autonomous vehicles and services for private use. There are significant risks to introducing new mobility technology without considering its impact on socio-technical systems. In Morris’ (2007) [2] overview of the evolution of the automobile it is shown that public authorities could not envision how the automobile would radically alter human life patterns, urban form and the environment. We deal with the externalities of that invention in the form of air pollution, urban

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