TALLAHASSEE, FL (WTXL) — A group of graduate students from the Florida State University Department of Urban and Regional Planning (URP) will receive the Student Project Award in September.
It is the fifth time a student-planning project at Florida State University has won the award since the state APA began presenting them in 2009.
"The fact this department has repeatedly been recognized for their student planning projects shows a true commitment to excellence and innovative thinking at FSU," said URP Professor Tim Chapin, interim dean of the College of Social Sciences and Public Policy.
The project, "Envisioning Florida's Future: Transportation and Land Use in an Automated Vehicle World," was conducted by a team of 13 graduate students in the department's Florida Planning and Development Lab. It envisions the future of Florida with the use of automated vehicles becoming widespread.
The study is part of the Florida Department of Transportation's ongoing research on automated vehicles, which includes a grant of more than $300,000 to URP in 2014 to study how "robot car" technologies could enhance mobility for aging populations and the transportation disadvantaged.
According to the study's findings, automated vehicles would allow reduction and narrowing of traffic lanes, create convenient drop-off lanes close to destinations, decrease the need for parking lots, improve the lives and mobility of transportation-disadvantaged populations such as aging and disabled adults, and improve the safety of pedestrians and cyclists.
