So North Avenue has been restriped/repaved to include a center turn lane?

[cqholt]

At the Metropolitan Atlanta Rapid Transit Authority, more commonly known as MARTA, officials are already thinking about and planning for autonomous buses and other self-driving vehicles.

AV technology in the Atlanta metro area is “teetering between conversation and then actual planning and development,” said Ben Limmer, assistant general manager at MARTA.

“We do have a whole host of safety and liability considerations,” he said, recalling some of MARTA’s top concerns as AV technology inches its way into the collective consciousness of public transit. “Related to that, how does this interface with passengers getting on and off these autonomous vehicles, is it your traditional bus stop or are there other considerations?”

Some of the big planning and development considerations in transit have generally focused on the capital-intense costs like buying buses and building shelters and other passenger or vehicle infrastructure, said Limmer.

“With autonomous vehicles you’re going to have to significantly increase the infrastructure needed on the sidewalk,” he added, offering a glimpse of the kinds of conversations transit planning officials are now having. “And you’re probably going to need wider sidewalks, and more significant transit shelters, or stops, in order to safely accommodate passengers boarding and alighting the transit vehicle.”

“Autonomous vehicles are definitely the sexy topic right now,” said Williamson. “And so many of our local elected officials — those that were there and those that weren’t — were thinking that they would learn answers to questions that don’t exist yet, with regard to autonomous vehicles.”

In some ways Atlanta is already dipping its toe into the smart cities swimming pool. MARTA partnered with the city of Atlanta to form the North Avenue Smart Corridor Project — a several-mile stretch from the Coca-Cola headquarters and Georgia Tech to the Ponce City Market — which has already been a test site for an autonomous bus and includes a smorgasboard of cameras, “adaptive” street signals and other technologies for testing.

“The future of smart transportation is bright,” said Limmer. “And MARTA’s role in that, as a public transportation provider, we are part of the mobility playing field, and we definitely look forward to more partnership opportunities.”

Atlanta Summit Raises Fresh Questions Around Smart Transit