Couldn’t attend the presentation yesterday but watched today’s board meeting. No public comments of substance, but I imagine that’s because folks with concerns are often working at 2:30pm on Thursday and not able to stand in JTA’s board room to express those concerns.
One bright spot is that they are finally proposing to restore the Flyer’s Green and Blue lines to their promised frequencies this fall:
But no, they remain resolute on the U2C. During Ford’s report to the board, he claimed that his peers in other cities are being asked by politicians what they are doing in “this new autonomous shuttle space,” and that JTA is “leading the pack.” I would note here that in the early 2010s, a number of medical science executives asked their employees why their companies were not doing what Theranos was. We know how that ended.
Ford also announced that a ceremonial groundbreaking for the Bay Street Innovation Corridor will be held on May 29th at the “Autonomous Innovation Center at LaVilla”. During updates on system development, SVP Greer Johnson Gillis reported that the first Ford van is being reconfigured by a contractor to add the sensors and cameras that will allow them to proclaim they have accomplished an autonomous vehicle. They have to date spent over $18 million on the Bay Street Innovation Corridor.