PRECURSOR SYSTEMS ANALYSIS OF AUTOMATED HIGHWAY SYSTEMS: ACTIVITY AREA O - INSTITUTIONAL AND SOCIETAL ASPECTS. LEGAL, INSTITUTIONAL AND SOCIETAL ISSUES RELATED TO THE DEPLOYMENT AND OPERATION OF AN AUTOMATED HIGHWAY SYSTEM

This report documents a study of Institutional and Societal Aspects of Automated Highway Systems (AHSs). This study covers one of sixteen activity areas in FHWA's Precursor Systems Analysis of Automated Highways program. AHSs will likely incur the most institutional, legal and societal impediments of any IVHS user service. The basic assumptions for an AHS include a reduction in the level of personal control individual drivers have over their vehicles. Several non-technical, but critical issues have been examined that will help identify and develop the institutional frameworks required to deal with AHS. These issues include vehicle/operator certification, product liability, project financing and the impact of AHS on other transportation services and land use development patterns. This study was based on an integrated "legal-technical" perspective of the institutional and societal aspects of AHS in a systems analysis that is grounded in actual implementation experience. Insight is presented into institutional problems at the state and local level by focusing on planning and operations processes and multi-jurisdictional issues. Potential financing alternatives are examined as well as evolutionary deployment strategies. Recommendations on preferred institutional frameworks for the various AHS concepts are also discussed.