Automated Vehicle Report
At the April 3rd Urban Planning Committee a report was presented based on an inquiry I made in December of 2017 regarding the Minister of Transportation reorienting the Department of Transportation to prepare for the rise of automated (autonomous, self-driving) vehicles in Alberta. While the province has been preparing for a variety of Intelligent Transportation systems for many years, January of 2019 will mark the beginning of the legislative changes that are required for full implementation of automated vehicle testing throughout Alberta. Municipalities then execute the legislative and regulatory framework created by province, including AV safety enforcement, land use decisions, and operation of transit systems. In order to prepare for these transformative changes and take advantage of the opportunities it provides, we as a City need to be leaders in the deployment of AV testing.
In order to do this, partnerships and collaboration between all orders of government and stakeholders is essential to successful implementation. The Future of Automated Vehicles in Canada Report explains how important these partnerships are. In Canada, the federal government is responsible for establishing the national AV policy and regulatory framework. Transport Canada is responsible for keeping vehicle manufacturers accountable for safety standards compliance and emissions requirements. Provincial and territorial governments are responsible for creating the legislative framework for AV testing and deployment within their own jurisdictions. They are also responsible for driver licensing, vehicle registration and insurance, rules of the road, and any changes to highway infrastructure that might be needed to support AV deployment. Key industry players include automakers, auto parts manufacturers along with local Universities, technology firms, and research institutes. As AV technology advances and is deployed onto public roads, the AV industry and all orders of government will need to work together.
The report presented (Item 7.1 attachment 1) cautions that if the City does not continue to advocate for and advance automated vehicle technology, other municipalities or other sectors will become the leaders and yield greater planning and financial benefit from the technology. In order to do this, Admin will be developing a Smart Transportation Action Plan to address and mitigate this risk. We heard from the founder and President of Magnovate, Dan Corns and John Stepovy from Pacific Western Transportation who both expressed interest in partnering with the City on AV transportation programs, as well as ACAMP and Alberta Innovates. I am encouraged by the number of interested partners and am excited to see these relationships explored further. I did make sure to clarify that the process for choosing these partnerships is fair and open for all to explore. The Smart Transportation Action Plan will be presented to the Urban Planning Committee in September 2018. The timing of this also aligns well with Council’s review and update of the Strategic Plan for 2019-2028. In order to incorporate emerging technologies into our development plan, testing is required to provide information on how that technology operates in Edmonton. Especially when thinking about new and emerging technology like automated vehicles, it’s is important to understand and test the technology so that we are ready to incorporate it into our transportation system in the future.
The work we are doing on new and emerging technologies in transportation including automated vehicles aligns with our City goals in a number of ways:
Regional and Economic Resilience: Preparing early and being a leader among Canadian municipalities can attract new investment, diversify our economy and insulate us from disruptions in our economy.
Urban Shift: Planning infrastructure with automated vehicles in mind creates a flexible urban environment that can more easily be changed once the technology is implemented.
Energy and Climate: Many automated vehicles will be electric which will help us move towards our goal of being a low carbon city. In addition, automated vehicles will make our transportation system more efficient, reducing the amount of time vehicles spend on the road.
Healthy City: Automated vehicles will mean that eventually, people will spend less time commuting or the time spent commuting will be used to do other things. This will help people lead more healthy and fulfilled lives.
Therefore in preparation of this, I made the following two motions which passed: That Administration, in partnership with relevant stakeholders, provide a report on implementation of Connected and/or Automated Vehicle pilot(s) testing with a target start date of January 1, 2019 or earlier to align with new Provincial rules on AV testing. Administration to provide progress report in third quarter.
Subsequent motion:
Can administration in consultation with relevant stakeholders, develop a service package for the necessary staff and potential capital required to support Automated Vehicle testing pilot(s) within the 2019-2022 operating budgets.
The work that we are doing to test and understand automated vehicles will help us identify the societal, economic, financial, environmental, and land use planning impacts. It will help City Council make decisions about how and when these emerging technologies should be deployed in Edmonton. By planning ahead, we can make investments that will serve people today and adapt when new technology arrives. This will ensure we have positive outcomes for all Edmontonians.
Written by A. Knack and K. Machin
