In January 2015, the National Center for Transit Research (NCTR) published a report summarizing the state of public transportation vehicle automation entitled "Evaluation of Automated Vehicle Technology for Transit." This 2016 update presents the latest information on this topic. Europe has been at the forefront of testing shared autonomous vehicles. The European Union is funding demonstrations and showcases of small autonomous shuttle buses in 10 cities across Europe under a program called CityMobil2. Two French companies, EasyMile and NAVYA, have emerged as commercial autonomous shuttle bus manufacturers. EasyMile provided the shuttles for the CityMobil2 project and also launched a separate demonstration in the Netherlands under the name WEPod. It has also signed an agreement with the Contra Costa Transportation Authority in California to test the shuttles in a commercial office park. NAVYA recently signed its first agreement with the Swiss public transportation company CarPostal to run autonomous shuttles in the Swiss city of Sion. In Minnesota, the Minnesota Valley Transit Authority has received funding from the Federal Transit Administration (FTA) to equip 11 of its buses with an updated version of the driver assist system it uses for bus on shoulder operations.

This paper describes the impacts on transit performance from three separate conversions of high-occupancy vehicle lanes into variably priced high-occupancy toll (HOT) lanes in Miami, Florida; Minneapolis, Minnesota; and Atlanta, Georgia. The data showed that the conversions had no negative impact on bus performance. In all three cities, the buses experienced travel time savings after the conversion: 17 min in Miami, 4.5 min in Minneapolis, and 5 min in Atlanta. Similarly, the HOT conversions did not negatively affect bus ridership. Ridership increased over the baseline by 57% in Miami and 13% in Minneapolis. In Atlanta, ridership increased by 11%, and this increase began before the conversion. Bus riders’ overall perception of the HOT lanes has been positive. In surveys, the bus riders from Miami and Minneapolis gave high ratings for travel times and reliability in the HOT lane corridors. Riders in Atlanta rated the bus service as very good but were not as positive about the tolls. Riders disagreed that the HOT conversion had improved their travel or been good for the Atlanta region. These negative responses may be attributable in part to widespread disgruntlement with the HOT concept that existed even before implementation.

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Abstract

This research involved a simulation that compared 3 days of actual traffic data for the I-95 Express Lanes and general purpose lanes in Miami, Florida, with a hypothetical scenario in which all transportation demand management (TDM) activities and toll exemptions were eliminated. The purpose of the research was to quantify the extent to which carpooling, vanpooling, and transit use contribute to better traffic flow in the I-95 corridor. In the hypothetical scenario there was a slight degradation in express lane level of service (LOS) and a slight increase in tolls in the southbound direction. Conversely, there was a slight improvement in express lane LOS and a slight decrease in tolls in the northbound direction. In the hypothetical scenario, many inherently low emission vehicles (ILEVs), which are toll exempt, opted out of the express lanes. The increase in express lane volume from former carpoolers, vanpoolers, and transit riders reverting to single-occupant status was often offset by even larger volumes of ILEVs leaving the express lanes. Although the traffic effect on the express lanes was mild, the effect on the general purpose lanes was more severe. In the hypothetical scenario, the general purpose lanes operated at LOS F 22% more of the time in the southbound direction and 8% more of the time in the northbound direction.