By Patrick Adrian
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BELLOWS FALLS, Vt. — The town of Rockingham could potentially become the first Vermont community to allow testing of automated vehicles on their local roads, after officials authorized the formation of a working group this week to study the question.
In a joint meeting Tuesday, the Bellows Falls Village Trustees and Rockingham Selectboard voted unanimously to create a working group to gather additional information, including community feedback, about allowing test drivers to test automated vehicles in the town and village.
“This is exciting to me,” said Village President Deborah Wright. “We have had a lot of challenges, particularly in 2020, to provide goods and service and give safe distances to people who cannot drive to and from appointments with minimal contact [with other people].”
The joint boards met with Joe Segale and Mike Oberchowski from the Vermont Agency of Transportation (VTrans), which is recruiting interested Vermont municipalities to host automated vehicle testing on their Class II, III and IV town highways. These include public roads that are solely owned and maintained by the municipalities.
Class I highways, in contrast, are roads with an assigned state route number that typically cross multiple communities. State transportation officials do not require consent from local municipalities to permit vehicle testing on Class I highways, Segale said.
At present the highest level of vehicle automation on the market has “level three” or “conditional automation,” Segale said. These vehicles are able to perform the majority of driving tasks but still require a human driver to be ready to assume operations if necessary. “Driverless vehicles” or vehicles that require minimal to zero driver presence are not currently available for testing but could be included in the future.
Level three automated vehicles have been heavily tested in urban areas so far, but Vermont could offer testers opportunities to drive amid challenging weather and a variety of road surfaces. Segale noted that Rockingham includes both urban and rural characteristics, which would allow testers to study how the vehicles handle that balance.
“It’s going to have to work in all these places if it’s going to be sold throughout the county,” Segale said.
So far, only two Vermont communities — Rockingham and Springfield — have expressed interest in hosting vehicle testing, though now that Vermont has established official guidelines for vehicle testing, Segale anticipates more municipalities may become receptive.
In addition to meeting a number of driver requirements, vehicle test applicants must acquire at least $5 million in liability insurance coverage. Segale said the average driver liability policy has a coverage of $40,000 to $50,000.
The vehicles must also be clearly marked as automated vehicles for easy identification.
Should Rockingham and Bellows Falls approve a resolution to permit vehicle testing, the governing bodies could include conditions to that approval and be able to withdraw the approval at any time, according to Segale.
Segale said the primary goal of automated vehicles is to increase public safety, as 90% of vehicle collisions involve “some sort of human error.”
Automated vehicles could also improve mobility access to people who cannot drive due to age or disability, Segale said.
Level three vehicles being tested around the country include shuttle services, commercial trucks and delivery vehicles.
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