Consultation response on automated passenger services permitting scheme

I am writing to respond to the Consultation on automated passenger services: permitting scheme. 

In my report, Changing the Narrative – Ending the acceptance of road death in London, I covered the issue of introducing automatous vehicles (AV) on London’s roads.  

My overriding concern is that supporting AVs simply bakes in priority for motor vehicles over other forms of transport. This continues the principle that cars are the dominant form of transport on our roads and normalises leaving walking and cycling with scraps of space and fragments of time at light-controlled junctions.  

Dr Ian Walker highlighted this in his recent paper, Why do cars get a free ride? The social-ecological roots of motonormativity, which demonstrated that: “government policy environments are all related to motonormativity.”  

Without strong regulation, the likelihood is that the AVs we will see on our already congested roads will predominantly be ‘taxis’ that replace the already-exploited private hire drivers, rather than buses providing additional much-needed public transport capacity. Further, the announcement included no detail on how these changes will affect people walking, wheeling or cycling, especially children, older and disabled people. 

Caroline Russell AM