Community workshop in Vilnius!
On 28 February, a Community workshop was organised in Vilnius, Lithuania, focusing on the test of an autonomous vehicle in underserved city area.
The EMBRACER project was presented, as well as the definition of driverless/autonomous vehicles.
The discussion, revision and development of a potential route for AV pilot in the summer-autumn season 2024 followed.
The workshop involved several participants: community residents (including the president of the community called “Užupio Respublika”), representatives of the Lithuanian Union of the Blind and Visually Impaired, public establishment “Climate-neutral Vilnius”, Ministry of Transport and Communications, and the EMBRACER project Vilnius team.
Even though the workshop didn't attract many residents or community visitors, the discussion was very meaningful: participants discussed about Public Transport and infrastructure improvement needs in the community, and shared suggestions for the pilot AV route revision. The discussion also covered an issue of the potential of an AV service in an underserved territory of the city of Vilnius.
The discussion enabled the Project team to develop several recommendations to be included in the list of future recommendations for the improvement of its IP - Vilnius Sustainable Mobility Plan:
- Development of a list of criteria for selection of a target territory (availability of infrastructure, streets, marking, number of residents, availability of educational and related institutions, community interest and tentative involvement, number of people daily travelling to workplace outside the community or territory, etc.)
- Importance of infrastructure improvements or development (available city plans, available or planed funding or investments)
- Identification of mobility issues in a selected territory
- Considering real needs of the residents, etc.