Abstract

Environmental impact has increasingly become a “buzzword” and an important topic. This topic has been integrated into the agenda of many companies worldwide, and this dissertation focuses on the transportation and logistics industry. Environmental concerns have gained increased attention among many logistic service providers (LSPs) due to the environmental impact from their operations, and they have been identified of having a significant role in reducing the environmental burden in the supply chain. An environmental approach of the LSPs' business has also been identified as a way to achieve competitive advantage and provide market opportunities where the development and marketing of new products and services associated with green issues are suggested as important aspects for future growth. However, considering the scarcity of research regarding this topic, a study that reveals potential aspects in the development of green service offerings can bridge the knowledge gap and provide opportunities for further research within this field. The purpose of this dissertation is therefore to develop and explain a framework for LSPs’ development of green service offerings. The purpose is addressed by first investigating LSPs' service development from a general perspective in order to, in a second stage, reach a better understanding of the implications when integrating green aspects in LSPs' service development efforts. Theoretically, this dissertation departed from service marketing literature or more specifically new service development (NSD) research. This resulted in a conceptual framework including key dimensions and aspects regarding a company’s NSD efforts and activities. From this foundation, the theoretical framework was developed further based on research regarding LSPs' service development and innovation management. Finally the framework was extended with green logistics literature as well as research regarding LSPs' green development and influences on their service offerings. Empirically, this research is mainly based on qualitative data from an in-depth case study on a large LSP active on the Swedish market. In addition, empirical data from a multiple case study and a questionnaire survey conducted for the Licentiate thesis were used in order to enrich the analysis regarding the LSPs' development of green service offerings. The analysis followed a stepwise approach where literature and empirical data were analysed. One of the main results in this dissertation is the framework for LSPs' new service development, consisting of five dimensions: NSD culture, NSD strategy, NSD process focus, IT use and expertise and NSD knowledge and skills. The NSD framework presents a holistic view of the LSPs’ NSD efforts by revealing different dimensions, their roles and relations to each other as well as the pre-requisites to take into consideration in the development of new services. Thus, the different NSD dimensions should not solely be viewed as isolated dimensions; instead, there is a need for LSPs to have a holistic view and understanding of the NSD activities’ reciprocity. Another main result concerns the adaption of the NSD framework to green service development. The results reveal some pre-requisites relevant for LSPs to consider in their efforts to develop green service offerings and are summarised in the following main dimensions: Creating green awareness in the NSD culture – encourage participation regarding green initiatives within the organisation, defining a “common picture” in order to facilitate collaboration efforts and knowledge exchange concerning green expertise. The support from top management was also identified of having an influencing impact. Defining the strategic approach of green service offerings – integrate a green concern in the overall business strategy and to define the strategic role and incentives for developing green service offerings. The results also suggest LSPs to adapt green NSD efforts to different business contexts and market possibilities to match existing resources and skills with customers’ green requirements, and to perform a segmentation of customers’ environmental work and ambitions to increase the understanding of customers’ green attitudes and requirements. Create processes and routines to facilitate spreading of green knowledge – highlights the relevance of a process focus for spreading green knowledge both from an external and internal perspective. It involves e.g. adoption of certifications, procedures for environmental calculations and documentation as well as routines to spread and integrate green knowledge among employees as well as identification of customers’ green requirements. Improve green internal knowledge and build green collaborations – provide training and education to increase the level of green awareness and knowledge among employees as well as customers and strive for collaboration efforts both internally and externally to utilise each other’s knowledge and resources towards the development of green service offerings. Increase transparency of green information both internally and externally – improve green information transparency to build both internal and external trust and increase possibilities to effectively use other actors’ knowledge and resources to develop environmental improvements in the supply chain. Integration of IT expertise and synchronisations of IT systems to facilitate and support environmental work and development of green service offerings.

Abstract

Traffic congestion increases travel times, but also results in higher energy usage and vehicular emissions. To evaluate the impact of traffic emissions on environment and human health, the accurate estimation of their rates and location is required. Traffic emission models can be used for estimating emissions, providing emission factors in grams per vehicle and kilometre. Emission factors are defined for specific traffic situations, and traffic data is necessary in order to determine these traffic situations along a traffic network. The required traffic data, which consists of average speed and flow, can be obtained either from traffic models or sensor measurements. In large urban areas, the collection of cross-sectional data from stationary sensors is a costefficient method of deriving traffic data for emission modelling. However, the traditional approaches of extrapolating this data in time and space may not accurately capture the variations of the traffic variables when congestion is high, affecting the emission estimation. Static transportation planning models, commonly used for the evaluation of infrastructure investments and policy changes, constitute an alternative efficient method of estimating the traffic data. Nevertheless, their static nature may result in an inaccurate estimation of dynamic traffic variables, such as the location of congestion, having a direct impact on emission estimation. Congestion is strongly correlated with increased emission rates, and since emissions have location specific effects, the location of congestion becomes a crucial aspect. Therefore, the derivation of traffic data for emission modelling usually relies on the simplified, traditional approaches. The aim of this thesis is to identify, quantify and finally reduce the potential errors that these traditional approaches introduce in an emission estimation analysis. According to our main findings, traditional approaches may be sufficient for analysing pollutants with global effects such as CO2, or for large-scale emission modelling applications such as emission inventories. However, for more temporally and spatially sensitive applications, such as dispersion and exposure modelling, a more detailed approach is needed. In case of cross-sectional measurements, we suggest and evaluate the use of a more detailed, but computationally more expensive, data extrapolation approach. Additionally, considering the inabilities of static models, we propose and evaluate the post-processing of their results, by applying quasi-dynamic network loading.

Abstract

It is well-recognised that companies are under pressure to take responsibility for the environmental impact of their operations. Logistics service providers (LSPs), who through their transport and logistics operations have a large negative impact on the environment, are one type of supply chain actor that is under such pressure. However, in order for LSPs to be able to lower their environmental impact sufficiently, their customers, the shippers, also need to take responsibility. This thesis takes its starting point in the relationships between LSPs and shippers and argues that in order for LSPs’ environmental activities to reach their full potential, the shippers must be included in the activities. The purpose of this thesis is to describe and explain how supply chain actors, with a specific focus on logistics service providers and shippers, can include environmental activities in their relationships with each other. This comprises identifying those environmental activities that are relevant for relationships between LSPs and shippers, as well as describing the extent to which environmental activities are included in such relationships. By means of the theoretical perspective of power between supply chain actors, the thesis also sets out to further understand how power balances between LSPs and shippers can influence the extent to which they include environmental activities in their relationships with each other. Finally, the use of the theoretical perspective of coordination aims, through the analysis of coordination mechanisms, to shed light on how environmental activities are included in LSP-shipper relationships. The research in this thesis has mainly descriptive and explanatory aims, although due to the novelty of research into LSPshipper relationships in an environmental context, the research process as such is mainly exploratory. Following an abductive approach, the insights from literature are combined with empirical data from two cases studies, a homepage scan, a survey and a study of city logistics projects. Most of the applied research methods take a dual perspective of relationships between supply chain actors and thus include both LSPs and shippers. One conclusion from the research conducted for this thesis comprises the identification of environmental activities as well as a suggestion for a classification based on the activities’ role in the business between LSPs and shippers. With a starting point in the identified activities, a comparison of a market perspective and a relationship perspective of environmental activities in LSP-shipper relationships indicates that LSPs are able to fulfil the requirements set by shippers and that shippers’ requirement thus are met. The research does, however, point to a passiveness among LSPs in their relationships with shippers, who in turn would like the LSPs to be more proactive. Further, based on an analysis of power balances in LSP-shipper relationships, it is suggested that in an LSP-shipper relationship in which the shipper has a power advantage, the shipper’s environmental ambitions for logistics sets the agenda for the environmental activities in that relationship. An analysis of coordination of environmental activities in LSP-shipper relationships indicates that the mechanisms of direct supervision, which is when one actor tells the other actor in the relationship what to do, and mutual adjustment can be chosen to be used in order to include environmental activities in LSP-shipper relationships. While direct supervision is suggested to be a coordination mechanism that is easy for shippers to apply, mutual adjustment appears to hold greater potential for the development of environmental activities. Finally, these findings in combination are suggested to have implications for the coordination of environmental activities in LSP-shipper relationships. More specifically, this thesis offers a categorisation of different types of LSP-shipper relationships and the involved actors’ environmental ambition. Depending on whether the environmental ambition of the LSP and shipper in a specific relationship is high or low appears to have implications for the possibility to work towards greener supply chains for each type of relationship. Många företag känner av pressen av agera för att minska sin miljöpåverkan. Flera företag har också insett att ett sådant agerande även har affärsmässiga fördelar. När det gäller miljöpåverkan så tillhör logistikföretagen, till stor del på grund av sina transporter, de företag som insett att något måste göras. Möjligheten för dessa företag att göra olika miljöåtgärder påverkas av varuägarna som köper logistikföretagens tjänster. Som en följd av detta blir länken mellan dessa företag – relationen – viktig för att möjliggöra förbättringar när det gäller påverkan från logistiken. Denna avhandling har som syfte att beskriva och förklara hur aktörer i försörjningskedjan, med ett speciellt fokus på relationer mellan logistikföretag och varuägare, kan inkludera miljöåtgärder i sina relationer med varandra. För att över huvud taget kunna diskutera miljöåtgärder i relationer mellan logistikföretag och varuägare så är det viktigt att veta vad för typer av miljöåtgärder detta kan röra sig om. Första forskningsfrågan i avhandlingen behandlar detta och i avhandlingen identifieras ett antal sådana åtgärder. Det kan röra sig om relativt tekniska åtgärder så som alternativa bränslen, olika typer av fordon och energieffektiv körning, till åtgärder som handlar om styrning av logistiken, så som design av logistiksystemen, till åtgärder som är väldigt relationsspecifika som exempelvis specifika projekt eller miljögrupper. Med avstamp i de identifierade åtgärderna analyseras sedan relationerna mellan logistikföretag och varuägare i några olika steg. En jämförelse mellan logistikföretagens och varuägarnas perspektiv på de miljöåtgärder som erbjuds, efterfrågas samt ingår i relationerna dem emellan visar att logistikföretagen ofta kan tillgodose sina kunders önskemål. Samtidigt som detta visar att varuägarnas önskemål verkar vara uppfyllda, så finns det en frustration från varuägarnas sida över att logistikföretagen inte är mer proaktiva. En av anledningarna till detta kan vara maktbalansen mellan logistikföretag och varuägare. Resultaten i avhandlingen pekar nämligen på att varuägarna oftast har makten över logistikföretagen, vilket verkar leda till att varuägarens ambitioner gällande miljö ofta är det som sätter agendan för vilka miljöåtgärder som inkluderas i relationen mellan dessa företag. Vidare så kan de miljöåtgärder som ingår i en relation mellan logistikföretag och varuägare koordineras på olika sätt och flera sådana tas upp i avhandlingen. Resultaten pekar även på att maktbalansen i relationerna påverkar i vilken grad miljöåtgärder inkluderas i relationer mellan logistikföretag och varuägare samt hur dessa koordineras. En matris, som bygger på logistikföretagets och varuägarens ambitioner gällande miljö för en specifik relation, sammanfattar resultaten i avhandlingen. Beroende på om denna ambition är hög eller låg för de båda aktörerna påverkar i sin tur möjligheten för varje typ av relation att arbeta mot gröna försörjningskedjor.

Abstract

Traffic congestion is increasing in almost all large cities, leading to a number of negative effects such as pollution and delays. However, building new roads is not a feasible solution. Instead, the use of the existing road network has to be optimized, together with a shift towards more sustainable transport modes. In order to achieve this there are several challenges that needs to be addressed. One challenge is the ability to provide accurate information about the current and future traffic state. This information is an essential input to the traffic management center and can be used to influence the choices made by the travelers. Accurate information about the traffic state on highways, where the potential to manage and control the traffic in general is very high, would be of great significance for the traffic managers. It would help the traffic managers to take action before the system reaches congestion and limit the effects of it. At the same time, the collection of traffic data is slowly shifting from fixed sensors to more probe based data collection. This requires an adaptation and further development of the traditional traffic models in order for them to handle and take advantage of the characteristics of all types of data, not just data from the traditionally used fixed sensors. The objective of this thesis is to contribute to the development and implementation of a model for estimation and prediction of the current and future traffic state and to facilitate an adaptation of the model to the conditions of the highway in Stockholm. The model used is a version of the Cell Transmission Model (CTM-v) where the velocity is used as the state variable. Thus, together with an Ensemble Kalman Filter (EnKF) it can be used to fuse different types of point speed measurements. The model is developed to run in real-time for a large network. Furthermore, a two-stage process used to calibrate the model is implemented. The results from the calibration and validation show that once the model is calibrated, the estimated travel times corresponds well with the ground truth travel times collected from Bluetooth sensors. In order to produce accurate short-term predictions for various networks and conditions it is vital to combine different methods. We have implemented and evaluated a hybrid prediction approach that assimilates parametric and non-parametric short-term traffic state prediction. To predict mainline sensor data we use a neural network, while the CTM-v is ran forward in time in order to predict future traffic states. The results show that both the hybrid approach and the CTM-v prediction without the additional predicted mainline sensor data is superior to a naïve prediction method for longer prediction horizons.

Abstract

Road transportation is an essential element of mobility in most countries and we can observe an increasing demand for both goods and passenger traffic. There are however important societal and economical problems related to road transportation in terms of congestions, traffic safety and environmental effects. During the last decades vehicles have increasingly been equipped with different types of Advanced Driver Assistance Systems (ADAS). These systems can to some extent compensate for human behaviour and errors that cause congestions, accidents and air pollution. Most studies conducted to evaluate ADAS have focused on ADAS impacts on the driver or on the vehicle. Since an ADAS might influence not only driving behaviour and vehicle dynamics, but also the interaction between equipped and non-equipped vehicles, it is also important to consider the resulting effect on the traffic system. A reliable and realistic evaluation approach needs to include estimations of drivers’ decisions in different traffic situations with respect to the ADAS functionality and how such decisions affect the traffic system as a whole. The overall aim of the thesis is to develop a simulation based evaluation framework for investigations of impacts of different types of cruise controllers on the traffic system. The objective is also to apply the framework to evaluate a fuel minimizing cruise controller for trucks, the Look Ahead Cruise Control (LACC). The framework developed consists of a combination of a microscopic traffic simulation model, and a vehicle and ADAS simulation model. When applied for a specific ADAS, as for example the LACC, the framework needs to be complemented with a driver model that captures the changes in driving behaviour due to the system of interest. In this thesis a driver model for LACC equipped trucks was developed based on results from a driving simulator experiment, a field operational test, and a focus group study. Simulation experiments were carried out to observe the LACC impacts on the traffic system with respect to penetration rate, traffic density, and variation in the desired speed. Environmental effects were estimated using emission calculations.

Abstract

The transport, electricity and telecommunication systems, also known as utilities, are under pressure from disruptive technologies, climate change and even unexpected health disasters. Questions related to demand management and safeguarding the functioning of the system are an important part of handling these pressures. In terms of road transport more specifically, the practices currently in use have been unsuccessful in flattening the demand curve or shifting the demand to more sustainable and space-efficient modes of travel. Therefore, the need for new input in the transport sector regarding demand management is higher than ever before. This report is intended to provide new insights for the transport sector based on the practices and methods for managing fluctuating demand found in other sectors, which can be translated into the following research question: What can the road transport sector learn about demand management practices from the electricity and telecom sectors? The analytical framework used for data collection and analysis is based on and combines the socio-technical theory of large technical systems (LTS) with the multi-level perspective (MLP) on sustainable transition into the infrastructure lifecycle model (ILM) introduced by Bolton and Foxon (2015). The findings are divided into three sections: road transport, electricity and telecom, and a matrix summarizing the identified practices and tools in use is provided at the end of each section. The concluding section is structured into specific learnable moments/new insights, providing an overview and discussion of all three systems in parallel with the help of the ILM. These moments include real-time monitoring and interventions, activating end users to make better-informed decisions, and public-private participation in planning and development. The report concludes with suggestions for future research. "p"QC 20200828

Abstract

Biogas is largely utilised as vehicle fuel in public bus transport in Sweden today. This study investigates opportunities and barriers for continued domestic use and production of biogas, in relation to the ongoing electrification of public bus transport. The analysis is based on interviews with actors in public transport and the biogas sector, experts on biogas systems, and representatives for alternative user segments. Three regions were chosen as case-studies for investigations of prospects in public transport, i.e. Stockholm, Västra Götaland and Skåne, though alternative uses were studied from a national perspective. In addition to public transport, considered uses include road transport, sea transport, industries, and electricity and heat production. The study identifies a broad agreement among stakeholders that renewable resources should be implemented where they provide most benefits from a system perspective. Therefore, electric public buses are valued in urban environments, while biogas solutions are found suitable for regional routes. Biogas is further viewed as environmentally beneficial in all user segments except continuous electricity and heat production, where it largely would replace renewable rather than fossil sources. Regarding costs and competitiveness, probable future uses are identified within light and heavy-duty road transport, and in consumer-oriented industries, i.e. the food industry. Economic support in policy instruments is further considered essential for continuous development of the Swedish biogas sector, though current influential instruments, e.g. the tax exemption, are described as short-term and unpredictable. The willingness to pay for the collected societal benefits of biogas further decrease in transitions from public to private consumers, and as biogas solutions simultaneously are linked with limited or uncertain competitiveness in these sectors, risks prevail that such transitions could imply stagnations and declines in biogas use and production, given today’s situation. Idag används biogas till stor del som drivmedel för bussar inom kollektivtrafik i Sverige. Denna studie undersöker möjligheter och hinder för en fortsatt nationell användning och produktion av biogas, i samband med att bussar inom kollektivtrafiken nu elektrifieras. Analysen är baserad på intervjuer med aktörer inom kollektivtrafiken och biogassektorn, sakkunniga inom biogas, och alternativa användare av biogas. Tre regioner, Stockholm, Västra Götaland och Skåne, valdes som fallstudier för analys av möjligheter för fortsatt användning inom kollektivtrafiken. Alternativa användningar studerades istället ur ett nationellt perspektiv, och inkluderade vägtransporter, sjöfart, industri och el- och värmeproduktion. Studien visar att det råder enighet mellan intervjupersoner att förnybara resurser över lag ska användas där de medför störst samhällsnytta sett till samhället i stort. Inom kollektivtrafiken beskrivs elbussar därför som fördelaktiga i stadsmiljöer, medan biogas ses som lämpligt i regional trafik. Biogas framställs dessutom som miljömässigt fördelaktigt i alla alternativa användningsområden utom kontinuerlig el- och värmeproduktion, eftersom då främst förnybara och inte fossila resurser ersätts. Med hänsyn till kostnader och konkurrenskraft ses lätta och tunga transporter tillsammans med kundnära industrier, t.ex. livsmedelsindustrin, som troliga framtida användningsområden för biogas. Ekonomiskt stöd från styrmedel bedöms vara nödvändigt för en fortsatt utveckling av biogassektorn i Sverige, även om dagens styrmedel, t.ex. skattebefrielsen, beskrivs som kortsiktiga och oförutsägbara. Betalningsviljan för biogasens samlade samhällsnyttor minskar också vid en övergång från offentliga till privata kunder. Eftersom biogas därtill har en begränsad eller osäker konkurrenskraft jämtemot andra alternativ i de privata segmenten, identifierar denna studie risker för stagnation eller nedgång i användning och produktion av biogas vid en eventuell utfasning från den offentliga sektorn, givet dagens situation.

Abstract

Intelligent transportation systems (ITS) are becoming more and more effective. Robust and accurate short-term traffic prediction plays a key role in modern ITS and demands continuous improvement. Benefiting from better data collection and storage strategies, a huge amount of traffic data is archived which can be used for this purpose especially by using machine learning. For the data preprocessing stage, despite the amount of data available, missing data records and their messy labels are two problems that prevent many prediction algorithms in ITS from working effectively and smoothly. For the prediction stage, though there are many prediction algorithms, higher accuracy and more automated procedures are needed. Considering both preprocessing and prediction studies, one widely used algorithm is k-nearest neighbours (kNN) which has shown high accuracy and efficiency. However, the general kNN is designed for matrix instead of time series which lacks the use of time series characteristics. Choosing the right parameter values for kNN is problematic due to dynamic traffic characteristics. This thesis analyses kNN based algorithms and improves the prediction accuracy with better parameter handling using time series characteristics. Specifically, for the data preprocessing stage, this work introduces gap-sensitive windowed kNN (GSW-kNN) imputation. Besides, a Mahalanobis distance-based algorithm is improved to support correcting and complementing label information. Later, several automated and dynamic procedures are proposed and different strategies for making use of data and parameters are also compared. Two real-world datasets are used to conduct experiments in different papers. The results show that GSW-kNN imputation is 34% on average more accurate than benchmarking methods, and it is still robust even if the missing ratio increases to 90%. The Mahalanobis distance-based models efficiently correct and complement label information which is then used to fairly compare performance of algorithms. The proposed dynamic procedure (DP) performs better than manually adjusted kNN and other benchmarking methods in terms of accuracy on average. What is better, weighted parameter tuples (WPT) gives more accurate results than any human tuned parameters which cannot be achieved manually in practice. The experiments indicate that the relations among parameters are compound and the flow-aware strategy performs better than the time-aware one. Thus, it is suggested to consider all parameter strategies simultaneously as ensemble strategies especially by including window in flow-aware strategies. In summary, this thesis improves the accuracy and automation level of short-term traffic prediction with proposed high-speed algorithms.

Abstract

The energy system is being transitioned to increase sustainability. This transition has been accelerated by the increased awareness about the adverse effects of the greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions into the atmosphere. The transition includes switching to electricity as the energy carrier in some sectors, e.g., transportation, increasing the contribution of renewable energy sources (RES) to the grid, and digitalizing the grid services. Electric vehicles (EVs) are promoted and subsidized in many countries among the sustainability initiatives. Consequently, the global sales of EVs rapidly increased in the recent years. Many EV owners might charge their EVs only at home, thereby increasing the residential load. The residential load might further increase due to the initiatives to electrify the heating/cooling sector. This thesis contributes to the knowledge about the operation of the future energy system by modeling the spatial charging load of private EVs in cities, and by proposing a forecasting model to predict the residential load. Both models can be used to evaluate the impacts of both technologies on the local electricity grid. In addition, demand response (DR) schemes can be proposed to reduce the adverse effects of both the charging load of EVs and the residential load. A case study of the EV model on the Herrljunga city grid showed that 100% EV penetration with 3.7 kW (charging rate of 14.8 km/h) chargers will not cause voltage violations in the grid. Winter load is responsible for 5% voltage drop at the weakest bus, and EVs add only 1% to this drop. In a Swedish city, charging EVs will require adding extra 1.43 kW/car to the grid capacity—assuming 22 kW (charging rate of 88 km/h) residential chargers. If the EV charging is not restricted to residential locations, an increase of 1.23 kW/car is expected. The proposed forecasting model is comparable in accuracy to previously developed models. As an advantage, the model produces a probability density function (PDF) describing the model’s certainty in the forecast. In contrast, many previous contributions provided only point forecasts.

Abstract

In the last years the steady development of autonomous driving technology has enabled the deployment of more mature autonomous vehicles. These vehicles have been applied in several pilot projects worldwide, most commonly in the form of small buses. At the same time, the amount of people traveling in especially urban areas is continuously growing, resulting in more trips in the transportation system. An efficient transportation system is therefore required to serve the growing passenger demand. Autonomous buses (AB) are assumed to have lower operational costs and with that public transport (PT) systems can potentially be designed more efficiently to facilitate the increased demand better. In this study, an AB specific simulation-based optimization framework is proposed which allows analyzing the impacts AB have on line-based PT systems. The thesis focuses on the transition from existing PT systems towards line-based PT systems operated partially or exclusively by AB. Existing work on PT service design is extended so that realistic AB systems can be investigated. This is achieved by (i) using AB specific operator cost formulations, (ii) integrating infrastructure costs required for AB operations, (iii) utilizing a dynamic, stochastic and schedule-based passenger assignment model for the simulation of PT networks and by (iv) formulating a multi-objective optimization problem allowing to investigate the stakeholder-specific impacts of AB. In Paper I the effects of AB, concerning service frequency and vehicle capacity, on fixed-line PT networks are investigated. Among other metrics, the changes are evaluated based on differences in level of service and passenger flow. Additionally, the sequential introduction of AB in existing PT systems is studied. The framework addresses a case study in Kista, Sweden. The study confirmed the initial hypothesis that the deployment of AB leads to an increase in service frequency and a marginal reduction in vehicle capacity. Furthermore, it could be seen that the deployment of AB increases the passenger load on AB lines and that passengers can shift from other PT modes towards the AB services. Paper II incorporates a multi-objective heuristic optimization algorithm in the simulation framework. The study investigates changes in transport network design based on the deployment of AB. The differences in user-focused and operator-focused network design are analyzed and the impact of AB on these is quantified. This study is applied to a case study in Barkarby, Sweden where a full-sized, line-based PT network is designed to exclusively operate AB. Among other findings, we show that the autonomous technology reduces the number of served bus stops and reduces the total PT network size. Additionally, average passenger waiting time can be reduced when deploying AB on user-focused PT networks, which in turn leads to a further reduction of user cost. De senaste årens framsteg inom autonom körteknik har lett till mer mogna autonoma fordon. Dessa fordon har setts tillämpas i flera pilotprojekt över hela världen, oftast i form av små bussar. Samtidigt växer mängden människor som reser, särskilt i stadsområden, kontinuerligt vilket resulterar i fler resor i transportsystemet. Därför krävs ett effektivt transportsystem för att tillgodose det växande antalet passagerare. Autonoma bussar (AB) antas ha lägre driftskostnader och därmed kan system för kollektivtrafik (public transport, PT) potentiellt utformas mer effektivt för att underlätta den ökade efterfrågan bättre. I denna studie föreslås ett AB-specifikt simuleringsbaserat optimeringsramverk som gör det möjligt att analysera effekterna AB har på linjebaserade PT-system. Avhandlingen fokuserar på övergången från befintliga PT-system till linjebaserade PT-system som delvis eller uteslutande drivs av AB. Befintligt arbete med PT-tjänstdesign utvidgas så att realistiska AB-system kan undersökas. Detta uppnås genom att (i) använda AB-specifika operatörskostnadsformuleringar, (ii) integrera infrastrukturkostnader som krävs för AB-verksamhet, (iii) använda en dynamisk, stokastisk och schemabaserad modell för att tilldela passagerare vid simulering av PT-nät samt genom att (iv) formulera ett multifunktionellt optimeringsproblem som gör det möjligt att undersöka AB: s intressespecifika effekter. I artikel I undersöks effekterna av AB, med avseende på servicefrekvens och fordonskapacitet, på fasta linjer i PT-nät. Förändringar utvärderas bland annat utifrån skillnader i servicenivå och passagerarflöde. Dessutom studeras den sekventiella introduktionen av AB i befintliga PT-system. Det föreslagna ramverket tillämpas på en fallstudie i Kista, Sverige. Studien bekräftade den initiala hypotesen att utplaceringen av AB leder till en ökning av servicefrekvensen och en marginell minskning av fordonens kapacitet. Vidare kunde man se att utplaceringen av AB ökar passagerarbelastningen på AB-linjer och att passagerare kan skifta från andra PT-former mot AB-tjänsterna. Artikel II integrerar en multifunktionell heuristisk optimeringsalgoritm i ramverket för simuleringen. Studien undersöker förändringar i transportnätverkets design baserat på implementeringen av AB. Skillnaderna i användarfokuserad och operatörsfokuserad nätverksdesign analyseras och AB: s inverkan på dessa kvantifieras. Denna studie tillämpas på en fallstudie i Barkarby, Sverige, där ett fullstort linjebaserat PT-nät är utformat för att exklusivt driva AB. Vi visar bland annat att den autonoma tekniken reducerar antalet använda busshållplatser och reducerar den totala PT-nätstorleken. Dessutom kan implementeringen av AB på användarfokuserade PT-nät ytterligare förbättra servicenivån främst genom att minska den genomsnittliga väntetiden per passagerare.