Is U2C serious? Help me make it make sense....

[Todd_Parker]

Looks like the U2C is going to be the subject of an investigative report on CBS47 at 5pm on Monday. More public knowledge of this use/waste of tax dollars is definitely needed.

[thelakelander]

Nothing that hasn't already been said about this project's risky challenges for years in these forums:

https://www.actionnewsjax.com/news/local/jtas-multimillion-dollar-autonomous-vehicle-project-is-over-budget-behind-deadline/F2MQPREI3JCTXFU4MKKDD7ERNI/

Kudos to JTA for getting CM Peluso and CM Diamond to agree on the same thing. That's pretty hard to do.

[marcuscnelson]

The attempted five-year delay is insane. Lays out that switching to the Ford vans is a last-ditch attempt to salvage this project with an FTA that seems to be losing patience. Stunning to see CMs Johnson and Carlucci essentially shrug in response, while Rep Nixon changed her mind in light of the evidence. The silence from most everyone else is baffling.

I don't see how any of this statement can still be true:

[jaxoNOLE]

The attempted five-year delay is insane. Lays out that switching to the Ford vans is a last-ditch attempt to salvage this project with an FTA that seems to be losing patience. Stunning to see CMs Johnson and Carlucci essentially shrug in response, while Rep Nixon changed her mind in light of the evidence. The silence from most everyone else is baffling.

I don't see how any of this statement can still be true:

The attempted delay is particularly egregious because the public rationale during the LOGT presentations was that failure to honor the Skyway grant terms would forever diminish JTA's reputation and standing with federal grant makers. Naturally, the responsible strategy is, "Double or nothing!"

[thelakelander]

So neither the state or the feds believe in this....if so, they'd both have big money invested in it.

No matter how many quiet politicians there are, we all know how this story will end. Its only a matter of time....

Schmidt has already jumped off the sinking ship. Who's next?

[Jax_Developer]

For anyone who follows the civil site plan reviews, there's no conceivable way there will be a groundbreaking this month. They still have dozens of comments with development review to work through. At best, they are looking at several months.

[thelakelander]

Throw up a tilt wall box for a maintenance garage, go down to the Ford dealership, buy a few vans and start driving down Bay Street. Although this is more expensive than rail, it ain't as complicated when you accept the version you'll get will not resemble the graphics and slick public information campaigns used to sell the dream. The key will be to not let these people muck up the skyway with LOGT funds.

[thelakelander]

I'm really looking forward to see how long the lines will stretch around the block with people waiting to pay to catch a ride in a Ford van.

[jaxlongtimer]

Disappointed some politicos are still behind it that should know better.  They should get on the bandwagon to kill it before it becomes JTA's radioactive (pun intended!) version of the JEA nuclear power plant boondoggle. 

Would rather take the hundreds of millions and put it toward the garbage fund deficit, septic tanks or the pension shortfall.  None are popular projects but any of them are better than U2C which is "guaranteed" to fail and then become the scandal du jour.  You heard it hear first...  .

[Ken_FSU]

Just catching up on this, but man is that Action News Jax report damning.

1. The JTA using the DVI's/DIA bloated State of Downtown Report and imaginary $4.8 billion 2018 project pipeline as justification for receiving federal grant money.

2. The DOT refuting JTA's 2,500 daily ridership estimates with their own estimate of a scant 250 riders a day.

3. The flashy clown cars getting replaced by Ford vans.

4. The $500k service center increasing in cost by nearly 20x.

5. Nat Ford tripling down on this boondoggle as a bleeding edge national-interest story and referring to Ford e-vans as "mass transportation."

6. The wild request for an extension until 2030.

7. Matt Carlucci's insane quote: "If It works, it’ll be a great success. If it doesn’t, you know, then we will have learned a lesson and every city, including Jacksonville, has some expensive lessons.”

8. JTA's refusal to sit down with the press.

Would almost be funny if it wasn't so sad, and didn't reflect an absolute crisis of leadership at so many different levels of city government and oversight.

What other city bets their entire mass transit future on 15 vans circling five square miles. SIXTY FIVE MILLION DOLLARS for 15 fucking vans steered by human drivers. Everyone involved needs to be committed. Our tax dollars don’t exist to fund a single man’s resume-padding science project.

[thelakelander]

^Just imagine where we'd be today if our transportation agency was as committed to providing a proven mass transit solution for this community a decade ago. What stands out to me the most about the U2C nonsense, is that JTA is showing they're willing to spend big time local money on something that they can't secure state and federal funds for.

[Charles Hunter]

Did anyone attend JTA's U2C Show?
https://www.actionnewsjax.com/news/local/jta-holds-public-information-sessions-its-autonomous-vehicle-project/U7OQPB5EPVDN5JEHERHMU2ZF2U/

A big part of it is how these autonomous vehicles will be operated.

“We are working on what we’ve been calling the supervisory system for the project which is that screen an individual can sit down behind and make operational choices to keep things moving with the system,” Jordan Dowdy with Beep said.

That’s especially important to keep things running smoothly for passengers.

“If there is a like a low battery issue with a vehicle that would be where an individual would

Isn't that what in normal English is called a "driver" or "operator"?

[thelakelander]

I did not. Don't have much time to waste these days!

[jaxlongtimer]

Did anyone attend JTA's U2C Show?
https://www.actionnewsjax.com/news/local/jta-holds-public-information-sessions-its-autonomous-vehicle-project/U7OQPB5EPVDN5JEHERHMU2ZF2U/

A big part of it is how these autonomous vehicles will be operated.

“We are working on what we’ve been calling the supervisory system for the project which is that screen an individual can sit down behind and make operational choices to keep things moving with the system,” Jordan Dowdy with Beep said.

That’s especially important to keep things running smoothly for passengers.

“If there is a like a low battery issue with a vehicle that would be where an individual would

Isn't that what in normal English is called a "driver" or "operator"?

If the below picture from the Daily Record is any indication, main attendees where JTA employees and their contractors.  I guess most people don't want to waste their time on fairy tales.  JTA should ask itself the questions the public is asking.  Not sure they would get the answers they want though.

Emphasis added below

....JTA staff and contractors in the project were on hand at the Main Library for the community events, which offered an overview of the U2C and provided stations where participants could ask questions about the system’s design, vehicles and other technology.

A video presentation at the community meetings said the initial phase of the project, which will operate on and around Bay Street, will provide 14 shuttles on a 3-mile route with 12 stops. Plans call for the shuttles to run every seven minutes.

The shuttles will be fitted with radar and lidar systems, static closed-circuit TV cameras and other technology that will interconnect with an array of sensors providing input on pedestrian and traffic movement, weather and other conditions.

Included in the Bay Street plan are 39 pedestrian sensors, plus high-tech traffic lights that include motion sensors. Nat Ford, CEO of the JTA, said onboard safety attendants would be stationed on the shuttles for the first nine months to one year of operations.

Ford said JTA designed the system with a philosophy of “measure three times, cut once,” working with various jurisdictional authorities – the Florida Department of Transportation, the Downtown Investment Authority and JEA among them – to map out the system in a way aimed at minimizing changes after it is built.

Cost of the Bay Street phase is estimated at $66.5 million, including $9 million for the Autonomous Innovation Center. Two successive phases will involve adapting the Skyway elevated monorail into the U2C and expanding the system, pushing the estimated cost to as much as $400 million for a full build-out.

Construction has begun on the Autonomous Innovation Center, which will be the nerve center of the system, with a ceremonial groundbreaking scheduled for May 29.

The center in LaVilla along East Bay Street will include a rooftop solar microgrid that will supply power to recharge the shuttles, an education center for conversations about automated vehicle technology and electric vehicle charging stations that will be available to the public.

The community sessions included a station focusing on design of the central control system, which will be the connection point for the streams of information flowing from the vehicles and sensors. Greer Johnson Gillis, a JTA senior vice president and chief infrastructure and development officer, said the system would allow operators to monitor for potential hazards and remotely control the shuttles accordingly.

Jordan Dowdy, a representative of the autonomous vehicle solutions company Beep Inc., said the system is being designed to be “vehicle agnostic,” meaning it will be able to interface with new AV technology as the field evolves. Beep has contracted with JTA to develop the system.

Gillis said the timeline calls for the Bay Street system to begin operations in June 2025.

The U2C has drawn criticism that it is overly expensive, relies on unproven technology and pulls funding away from other solutions that would more pragmatic. Among the critics is Council member Jimmy Peluso, whose District 7 includes the Bay Street corridor.

The estimated cost of the first phase has risen since January 2022, when JTA signed a $49 million contract with a consortium headed by Balfour Beatty LLC for the first phase of the project.

https://www.jaxdailyrecord.com/news/2024/may/13/jta-provides-community-updates-on-automated-shuttle-system/

[fsu813]

Much of this First Coast Connect show (last week) was dedicated to talking about this issue.

They eviscerate the U2C:
https://news.wjct.org/show/first-coast-connect/2024-05-09/week-in-review-laura-street-trio-u2c