San Mateo County looks to autonomous vehicles for transit future

“All of us in San Mateo County work hard to address the needs of our communities today, but we also have a duty to look into the future,” said Emily Beach, San Mateo County Transportation Authority chair and a Burlingame councilmember. “What do our communities need 5, 10, 20 years from today?”

Private-sector ride-hailing services and delivery companies currently lead the way in autonomous technology, with companies like Cruise and Waymo already operating driverless pilot programs in San Francisco and Phoenix. Many automakers are on the cusp of offering autonomous technology in new cars, like Tesla’s “full self-driving” and GM’s Super Cruise.

But transit agencies are hoping to use the technology as well, offering expanded public transportation services with greater safety and equity while also meeting climate goals. 

The workshop produced suggestions to use autonomous services to fill in gaps in the county’s current public transit coverage with “first and last mile” services, particularly for seniors. Driverless shuttles serving corporate campuses could also be early adopters, and express lanes and major transit arteries could be upgraded with infrastructure to better support autonomous vehicles. 

Clear road paint and signs and functioning traffic signals are among key needs for autonomous cars, said Mark Rosekind, chief safety innovation officer for autonomous rideshare company Zoox. Space for pick-up and drop-off points will also be key for ride-hail and shuttle services.

Neighboring programs  

San Mateo County, near the epicenter for driverless technology, has yet to move forward with any autonomous projects, but some neighboring counties are gearing up to launch self-driving programs as early as next year.

An autonomous shuttle service, for instance, is planned to serve the Palo Alto VA Medical Center beginning in the middle of 2022. The initial service will operate on private roads, though a version for public roads is planned to begin service in 2023. While both shuttles would employ an operator to intervene if there was an issue, either with driving or with passengers, the Santa Clara Valley Transportation Authority is currently seeking funding for a system that could eliminate the need for a driver entirely. 

“About 80% of the cost of operating transit comes from labor, the big majority of that being driver labor,” said Adam Burger, a senior transportation planner with the agency. “If transit agencies no longer need drivers, they could provide vastly more service, they could do it for much longer hours more cost efficiently. But there’s enormous questions there about whether we’ll be comfortable getting to that point.”

The main challenge is to meet requirements associated with the Americans with Disabilities Act, said Burger. Cameras and voice monitoring systems to identify if people are waiting at a stop and if ramps need to be deployed, as well as if someone in the bus needs assistance or is having a medical issue would need to be part of the equations, he said.

In Contra Costa County, officials are exploring both autonomous shuttles as well as installing infrastructure to aid personal autonomous vehicles on a two-mile portion of Interstate 680.

“We’re using autonomous vehicles to see if we can increase capacity on the freeway,” said Jack Hall, a program manager for the Contra Costa Transportation Authority. “We don’t feel like we can build our way out of congestion, we feel like technology is the way to go.”

Concerns

Research surrounding autonomous vehicles in congested settings suggests the technology can reduce stop-and-start behavior — the ripple effect that can be triggered by unnecessary braking from a single driver. And ideally autonomous vehicles will be less prone to crashes that can render freeways clogged for hours. 

Widespread use of single-occupancy self-driving cars, however, may not be the silver bullet to solve traffic some advocates dream of. 

According to William Riggs, an autonomous vehicle expert and professor at the University of San Francisco, the technology could increase traffic as more people turn to the convenient transportation for more frequent and longer trips. 

“Basic economics would tell us that if it’s easier to travel in a car and not [public] transit, that we will likely see induced demand,” he said. “The question is will they do that in a way that is in a private vehicle or will they do that in a vehicle that is shared?”

 The benefit for public transportation uses is also unclear. 

“We don’t know where we’re going,” said Burger. “We’re trying out some things now and we’re going to have to see what problems come up.” 

Burger voiced concern that autonomous technology’s implementation could be driven too heavily by elected official’s interests in establishing Silicon Valley as a leader in the space rather than upholding the transit agency’s goals surrounding accessibility, equity and passenger experience.

“It can be a wonderful technology but it might not be what we actually need to maximize the benefit to our customers,” said Burger. “It has to fit within our entire mission and customer focus.”

corey@smdailyjournal.com

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