Automated Mobility and Inclusion as Educational Topics for Children and Juveniles and as Tasks and Responsibilities of Mobility Planning: Work-Report on the Project AM4Kids

Abstract

Automated mobility (AM) involves the increased use of digital information and communication technologies in all areas of traffic and mobility, particularly in the vehicle and mobility sector, in the infrastructure, transportation and the management of mobility-related processes (pre-, on- and post-trip). To ensure that the potentials of AM, like higher efficiency and improving accessibility, meet the demands and mobility patterns of different types of people, especially vulnerable ones like kids and people with disabilities, it is essential to make children and young adults aware of this complex and diverse topic already today. Therefore, planning and development activities in the mobility sector should involve this future generation and consider their ideas and concerns. Planning and development activities should be considered from a holistic and inclusive perspective, considering a wide variety of traffic participant groups. In this context, the Austrian project AM4Kids1 creates a direct interface between children and young adults and mobility planning. The scientists and planners take the role of facilitators of knowledge and accompany an inter and transdisciplinary, multi-level exchange between disciplines, such as transport planning, social science, mobility research, and actors from the inclusion sector. In the project, age-appropriate and gender-sensitive workshops, input lectures, and educational materials were developed and implemented by the interdisciplinary consortium of sociologists, transportation planners, landscape architects, civil engineers, software developers, and legal experts for the needs of people with disabilities. This paper presents the methods applied in the corresponding project phases. Furthermore, a reflection on the achieved results and experiences from the activities in project phases 1 and 2 is provided.