The plan shows parking for 12 AVs.
Is that the total number of AV's we get for some $400,000,000?! That's an investment averaging $33.33 million a piece. We could buy 10,000 cars at $40,000 a piece and get a lot more for our money.
How many people a day can 12 AV's possibly move? At 7% interest this runs at $2,310,000/year or $6,329/day, every single day of the year, and we haven't even accounted for operating and maintenance costs and depreciation.
Is there not one sane person on JTA's board to question this project?
Simply put the board has been loaded. Took several years for that to take place but there’s been virtually 0 dissent from votes I have found from previous JTA board meetings for the past few years.
Moreover, JTA still lacks a single employee with technical background related to EV’s & AV’s. Hence why what you have pointed out hasn’t been realized. Even if they had 120 vehicles, still well over any sane pricing for a small, mass produced(lol), vehicle. Whats likely happening, is 50% of that number is going towards “infrastructure” & another good portion is going to “other” things. I bet the true investment in the vehicles is actually a small % of the total projected costs. Total speculation.
So basically, I think, the city is paying for dedicated ROW’s being created from existing ROW, and these other novelties. Like where is this maintenance center money coming from & why not just upgrade an existing facility? There’s no way this permit doesn’t come in like $15M+.
All of this to be said, and I legitimately believe that the U2C program has already run the taxpayer $50M. All the years of delay, salaries, expenses, etc, are all compounding the cost of this project before dirt even moves. Before a pen is even signed for a supplier. This is truly an unbelievable situation, and when it’s found out, I just hope whoever takes over actually has funding to do something with any amount of meaning.