The Atlanta Beltline has plans for a $3 million pilot program to bring autonomous vehicles to the Westside Trail in advance of the FIFA World Cup games.
The plans were made public Monday at a specially called meeting of the Atlanta-Region Transit Link Authority. Beltline officials have proposed a 12-month trial featuring four driverless shuttles from Beep, the same Florida-based company that operated self-driving shuttles in Cobb County’s Cumberland district during Atlanta Braves games and other events.
Starting next January, the pilot will put Beep shuttles on a roughly 2-mile route between the Atlanta University Center, MARTA’s West End Station and the Lee + White Entertainment District that is adjacent to the Westside Trail.
Clyde Higgs, Beltline president and CEO, said this is a test as the organization looks at how to provide transit on the corridor.
The Beltline was originally envisioned as a 22-mile loop of trails and light rail but the light rail portion of the plan has not yet materialized and many, including Atlanta Mayor Andre Dickens, oppose the current plans to start light rail on the Eastside Trail.
“Transit is part of our whole DNA when it comes to the Beltline, and Cliff Notes version, it’s going to require lots of different modes and options,” Higgs told the ATL Board, which oversees transit planning and funding in the metro Atlanta region. “This is something, as we try to get ahead of the FIFA World Cup for next year, that we want to experiment with.”
The pilot won’t operate on the trail but will link it with the nearby West End MARTA station, just under a mile away. The route was chosen to help people explore a less-traveled section of the Beltline, particularly visitors traveling to Atlanta for the World Cup games, said Shaun Green, the Beltline’s senior transportation engineer.
“We know there’s going to be a ton of demand for people to get there,” Green said in an interview. “Last-mile connectivity is going to be a blessing.”
Credit: Ben Hendren
Credit: Ben Hendren
The buses will operate in general traffic lanes without a dedicated right-of-way. Rides during the trial will be free or require a modest fare, Green said. Those details still need to be worked out.
Beep has been courting Beltline officials for two years and sees Atlanta as a key market, CEO Joe Moye said in an interview. In addition to the Cumberland pilot, Beep has tested its vehicles at the Curiosity Lab at Peachtree Corners.
Beep’s driverless buses were one of five options the Beltline asked two different consultants to study earlier this year, alongside light rail, rapid bus transit, self-driving pods from a company called Glydways and a gondola-style Skytrain. The reports were obtained from Atlanta Beltline following a public records request.
Autonomous buses from Beep and Beep’s partner Holon were recommended by one of the consultants, TYLin, as the preferred solution for transit on the Beltline. It would cost less than light rail to construct. And while it would cost about as much as rapid bus transit to build, operating costs would be lower, the consultants said.
TYLin envisioned a scenario with Beep’s autonomous buses as the “backbone” of Beltline transit, operating alongside the existing Atlanta Streetcar and, potentially, Glydways and a Skytrain.
The second consultant, Cincar, didn’t make a specific recommendation but said “no single transit mode can adequately address Beltline needs.” Cincar described autonomous buses as “emerging” technology.
Dickens has cited the consultant’s recommendations as the reason he backed off previously supported plans to start light rail on the Eastside Trail and why he now supports a multi-modal option.
“In basically a blind test, two different consultants came back and said that this is likely going to be multi-modal loop,” Dickens said last month in an interview at the Atlanta Press Club. “You don’t want the first version of the electric vehicle anymore. You want the hottest, newest version.”
The mayor’s office did not respond to a request for comment on today’s announcement.
Moye said his company is interested in operating on the Beltline in the future. The company is also interested in operating around the trail, as with the pilot, he said.
“That’s definitely something we’re looking at, or I should say, the Beltline’s looking at for the future,” Moye said.
Credit: Ben Hendren
Credit: Ben Hendren
TYLin’s report evaluated a 15-passenger Beep bus and a 100-passenger bus. The larger vehicle is not currently in production.
The vehicles for the Beltline pilot are a third type that uses electric Ford cargo vans outfitted with autonomous driving technology. They carry 10 people.
A group pushing for light rail, Beltline Rail Now, said in a statement they were “mystified” by the plan and worried it is getting priority over light rail.
“In lieu of that, we’re getting glorified box vans with WiFi,” said Matthew Rao, the group’s chairman.
Rao said the group supports technology innovation but that taxpayers shouldn’t foot the bill for a private company’s experiment.
If approved by the ATL board at its meeting in June, the project will be partially funded with $1.75 million from the transit trust fund, a pot of state money that pays for transit projects around the state.
The rest of the expected costs would be covered by the Beltline or private, in-kind donations. The Beltline is funded primarily through a tax allocation district that levies property tax revenue growth to pay for infrastructure within the area in and around the Beltline.
The tight timeline between now and the World Cup means federal funding is not a viable option, said Jill Johnson, the Beltline’s vice president of government affairs.
Credit: Handout
Credit: Handout
The proposal received mostly favorable reaction from ATL board members.
“This is so vital,” said Marci Collier Overstreet, an Atlanta City Council member who also serves on the ATL board and who is running to be the Atlanta City Council president. “The fact that it’s innovative at the same time is so exciting.”
Two ATL board members, Fulton County Commissioner Robb Pitts and DeKalb County CEO Lorraine Cochran-Johnson, asked how Beltline chose Beep and whether other autonomous vehicular companies were considered.
Green told the board that Beltline officials talked to Beep, Glydways and Skytrain, the three companies explored in the consultant studies. Glydways and Skytrain require infrastructure that meant those options weren’t feasible for a short pilot.
Other companies like Waymo operate in Atlanta with driverless vehicles, but Green said in an interview that they were looking for a fixed-route transit option with higher capacity than what robo-taxis offer.
Aside from the Beep pilot, there are no major projects in the works for the Beltline before the World Cup, Johnson said. The organization is updating wayfinding signage before the games, however.
There aren’t any plans to create a parallel path to separate pedestrians from cyclists and scooter riders, a proposal pushed by Better Atlanta Transit, an advocacy group that opposes the existing Eastside Trail light rail plans.
“The anticipated influx of tens of thousands of international visitors for next year’s World Cup games demands that the growing hazard of pedestrian-vehicle collisions be resolved,” the group wrote in an April statement.
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