JTA moves closer to start of work on system of self-driving transit shuttles in downtown

The inaugural National Autonomous Vehicle Day hosted by the Jacksonville Transportation Authority gave attendees a chance to take a spin in vehicles at the testing facility where JTA has been putting self-driving shuttles through the paces for years.

JTA is getting close to finally starting work on taking all that testing and putting it into the real-world situation of moving people on trips along a stretch of Bay Street in downtown.

Construction could start this summer on the $49 million project, though JTA might alter that budget before actually moving forward on it.

Other transportation agencies will be closely watching.

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"I don't know of another transit authority that is this far ahead," said Bernard Schmidt, vice president of automation and innovation at JTA. "There are others that partner with us and there are others that we know are charting down the same path."

JTA calls its planned system the Ultimate Urban Circulator, or U2C for short. The full buildout costing several hundred million dollars would convert the elevated Skyway in downtown so rubber-tired automated vehicles will be able to travel on the elevated portion and then go to street level, enabling future expansion of the system into neighborhoods surrounding downtown.

The first piece of that street-level leg will be along Bay Street from the core of downtown's business district out to the sports complex. JTA expects it will be ready to launch the service for riders in June 2025.

The JTA board approved a $49 million budget in January 2022 for the Bay Street Innovation Corridor. JTA says that budget could change based on modifications to the design and possibly creating dedicated lanes for the automated vehicles to carry passengers along Bay Street, rather than having the vehicles operate in existing lanes while mixed in with other vehicles. The creation of dedicated lanes would require taking out on-street parking along Bay Street.

During the National Autonomous Vehicle Day event at the JTA's Test and Learn Facility on Armsdale Road, attendees who boarded a shuttle JTA has been testing found that at least on the first trip, the ride had several jarring stops. The vehicle's technology monitors conditions on the driving route and makes adjustments, similar to how a person behind the wheel observes what's happening and takes actions.

But the technology can bring the shuttle to a sudden, jarring halt based on how it responds to what its cameras are picking up. Those dead stops happened several times when the shuttle made a short lap on the test track that goes around a parking lot, even though no obstructions actually were in the way of the shuttle.

Event attendee Carl Ogborn, who works for Chang Industrial, said it was his first ride on an automated vehicle that operates like a People Mover. He said he's familiar with autonomous robots in his line of work so he can relate to a demonstration of technology not working as intended.

"You would hope that a demonstration at an event like this would go a little smoother, but I guess that's part of the new technology, so it's not too disappointing," he said.

The shuttle operated more smoothly on subsequent trips that took other attendees for rides.

JTA has not yet selected what manufacturer and model of shuttle it would use for the Bay Street Innovation Corridor. When it's up and running, about 12 to 15 of the automated vehicles will be operating in that corridor. JTA will do a fare study to determine what it will cost to ride the U2C.

Schmidt said JTA has been using the Armsdale Road facility to put shuttles through intensive testing to see what they can do and what their limitations are. He said JTA will follow the same approach when it moves to testing how the vehicles operate in the traffic environment of Bay Street.

"I can't guarantee you that there won't be issues," he said. "There will be issues, but at the end of the day, I think we've put together a program, we've put together a process, and we've put together requirements that look at trying to mitigate a number of risks and take the safest profile approach."

JTA has been testing automated vehicles since 2017 when it opened a test track off Bay Street in the sports complex. That track was for vehicles to go in a straight line back and forth without any turning, compared to the loop that vehicles make at the Armsdale Road test site.

Schmidt said technology has continued to improve with the latest version of the vehicles. The batteries that power the all-electric vehicles can go longer between charges and the various kinds of technology that collect information about the vehicle's surroundings have become more sophisticated in how they work together.

"It's probably not visible to the naked eye, but the technology changes a lot and changes often," he said.

The second phase involving conversion of the elevated Skyway to the U2C is in the design process that will determine its budget. When City Council agreed to double the local 6 cents per gallon gas tax to 12 cents, one of the many projects funded by that tax increase will be the Skyway conversion. The local gas tax will generate $247 million over 30 years for that second phase.

This article originally appeared on Florida Times-Union: Jacksonville Transportation Authority closer for automated vehicles