Automated Vehicles: Planning and Policy Draft SYLLABUS Spring 2017 Basic Course Information Time/Place: Thursdays, 7:20 p.m. 10:00 p.m. Founders Hall Instructor: Kelley Coyner Telephone 571-641-9132 E-mail: Kcoyner2@gmu.edu Office hours By appointment only. Thursday before class or via Skype. This course is a graduate seminar that will explore the frontiers of planning and policy for shared, automated, and electrified vehicles. Truck platooning is being tested on I-66, low speed automated shuttles are moving passengers in 9 communities across the county, one U.S. plans to go electric by 2025, and one of the two major ridehailing services plans to be fully automated in five years. And polling consistently shows that 75% of the general population in the United States are scared to ride in a driverless vehicle. Highly automated vehicles are transform everything the touch. The question is whether you should get ready for jetpacks or make way for rogue robot pod cars? In a seminar format, students will analyze legal, economic, financial, governance, innovation and operational issues surrounding AVs. Seminar participants will consider of safety, environmental, congestion, and climate issues. Through lectures and interactive planning sessions, students will focus on early use cases across typologies (rural, suburban, and urban). and modes with an emphasis on surface applications. The class will feature a roster of guest lecturers from technology, automotive, transit, trucking, labor, climate/resilience, transportation and municipal funding, finance, smart cities labs and AV proving grounds, legal and planning fields among others. Students will be required to write a series of short policy documents including issue briefs, research problem statements, and memos to policymakers; to participate a scenario planning session designed to generate a research agenda and action plan for local planners and, as a group project, create a policy or planning framework related to AV deployment at the state, regional, or local level. The instructor, is Kelley Coyner, a Senior Fellow at the Center for Regional Analysis in the Schar School of Policy and Government. A leading transportation practitioner at all levels of government, Ms. Coyner focuses on how communities can take advantage of disruptive technology and new mobility business and service models. Students completing this course successfully will enhance their ability to: 1. Critically evaluate policy and planning implications of automated vehicle technology
2. Identify the social, ethical, environmental, legal, economic and operational economic dimensions of automated vehicles deployment. 3. Identify key planning and policy issues and develop strategies for addressing these considerations. 4. Write concise and balanced briefing memos, issue briefs, white papers, and research problem statements; and 5. Develop actionable strategies or policy frameworks for a state or local government. 6. Give compelling oral presentations. Topic (Topics may change subject to Guest Speakers and Class Interests) 1 Introduction 2 What is an AV anyway? How does does it drive/learn/navigate? Is it really driverless? What are the first best use cases for automated vehicles? What do we know about deployment? Legal, Regulatory, Planning Frameworks Discussion: What can government do to facilitate the deployment of autonomous vehicles? How important is uniformity to innovation? Framework assignments finalized 3 Can you arrest a robot? Trolley Problem --- AVs and ethics Who is responsible for the safe operations of driverless vehicles? Who s liable in a crash? 4 AVs+Shared Vehicles + Electric Vehicles 5 Land use: What do AVs mean for land use? Will land use patterns change? Do we need parking garages any more? How can communities plan in the face of so many unknowns? 6 Making streets work with new forms of mobility services plus Lessons learned from TNCs Equity who gets to ride, who are the winners and losers, what changes for transit dependent riders 7 Freight, Delivery, and Logistics: Platooning, First and Last Mile, and Block Chain 8 Low speed AVs Shuttles Possible field trip to Local Motors at National Harbor 9 Sidewalk Demand Management Dedicated lanes for surface drones, new bike lanes, beyond segues, deliveries, and walkers 10 Workforce Issues who loses their job and when, what do new replacement jobs look like, types skills are needed? 11 What will it take for AVs to live up to the promise of improving mobility of visually and physically impaired? 12 Big, big data: who owns it, who manages it, who makes money from it? 13 Breaking the silos: refor
14 Roundtable on takeaways No final exam Requirements General Guidelines All assignments will be distributed and received through Blackboard. Late assignments will not be graded unless discussed in advance with the instructor. Written assignments should be in 12-point font, double-spaced, with reasonable margins. Reading of all assigned materials is required, including those assigned by guest lecturers. Assignments and Weighting 5% Self-introductory essay, no longer than 2 pages, that discusses your background and interest in the topic of automated vehicle technology as well as policy and planning 20% Policy or Planning Framework (group project). This case study is a group project on an assigned topic. Each group creates a chapter in a Wikibook and makes a presentation and leads an in-class discussion. 10% Written critique of policy or planning framework/wikibook chapter for topics other than your own group. 15% Policy Briefing Memo 15% Issue Brief 10% Research Problem Statement 5% Reflective essay, no longer than 5 pages, that discusses your interests in the topic, the topic and main points of your policy briefing memo, principal insights from the class readings, discussions and guest lecturers. This will be presented in roundtable format on the last day of class. 15% Class participation. Students, in rotation, will be asked to lead class discussions and/or introduce guests. 100% Total There are two required texts for the course: Autonomous Driving: Technical, Legal and Social Aspects 1st ed. 2016 Edition, by Markus Maurer (Editor), J. Christian Gerdes (Editor), Barbara Lenz (Editor), Hermann Winner (Editor) Driverless: Intelligent Cars and the Road Ahead (MIT Press) 2017
We will also rely on extensively outside readings throughout the semester including those identified by guest presenters. I will make all readings available on Blackboard. Academic Policies SPGIA Policy on Plagiarism The following is SPGIA policy with regard to plagiarism: The profession of scholarship and the intellectual life of a university as well as the field of public policy inquiry depend fundamentally on a foundation of trust. Thus any act of plagiarism strikes at the heart of the meaning of the university and the purpose of the School of Policy, Government, and International Affairs. It constitutes a serious breach of professional ethics and it is unacceptable. Plagiarism is the use of another s words or ideas presented as one s own. It includes, among other things, the use of specific words, ideas, or frameworks that are the product of another s work. Honesty and thoroughness in citing sources is essential to professional accountability and personal responsibility. Appropriate citation is necessary so that arguments, evidence, and claims can be critically examined. Plagiarism is wrong because of the injustice it does to the person whose ideas are stolen. But it is also wrong because it constitutes lying to one s professional colleagues. From a prudential perspective, it is shortsighted and self-defeating, and it can ruin a professional career. The faculty of the School of Policy, Government, and International Affairs takes plagiarism seriously and has adopted a zero tolerance policy. Any plagiarized assignment will receive an automatic grade of F. This may lead to failure for the course, resulting in dismissal from the University. This dismissal will be noted on the student s transcript. For foreign students who are on a university-sponsored visa (e.g., F-1, J-1, J-2), dismissal also results in the revocation of their visa. To help enforce the SPGIA policy on plagiarism, all written work submitted in partial fulfillment of course or degree requirements must be available in electronic form so that it can be compared with electronic databases, as well as submitted to commercial services to which the School subscribes. Faculty may at any time submit student s work without prior permission from the student. Individual instructors may require that written work be submitted in electronic as well as printed form. The SPGIA policy on plagiarism is supplementary to the George Mason University Honor Codes; it is not intended to replace it or substitute for it (http://www.gmu.edu/facstaff/handbook).
Disability Accommodations If you are a student with a disability and you need academic accommodations, please see me and contact the Office of Disability Services (ODS) at 993-2474, http://ods.gmu.edu. All academic accommodations must be arranged through the ODS.Schedule Options and Contingencies