Expanding the Skyway: Where would you like it to go?

[FlaBoy]

http://jacksonville.com/news/metro/2017-03-06/jta-demonstrates-driverless-vehicles-jacksonville

Jacksonville residents and officials boarded a driverless vehicle Wednesday to experience what likely will be the future of transit here. The rounded red-and-black vehicle navigated its way seamlessly through the parking lot across from Intuition Ale Works on East Bay Street. It slipped past a concrete pole without bumping the obstacle — and when a reporter accidentally stepped in front of the oncoming vehicle, it stopped.

[Tacachale]

Hmmm.

[Dapperdan]

Very interesting. If the goal is to fill in the elevated portion then bring it down to grade with dedicated lanes, then this could be very cheap to implement. Does anyone know if these are electric or gas vehicles? It also seems very easy to increase or decrease the scale based on events. I was on the fence but am liking this more and more.

[remc86007]

Very interesting. If the goal is to fill in the elevated portion then bring it down to grade with dedicated lanes, then this could be very cheap to implement. Does anyone know if these are electric or gas vehicles? It also seems very easy to increase or decrease the scale based on events. I was on the fence but am liking this more and more.

I agree. It looks like a good idea to me.

They are electric. You can read more here: http://easymile.com/

[KenFSU]

Just jumped on the Skyway to grab lunch at Sake House. It's amusing to me that all Skyway signage, voice commands, etc. still refer to FSCJ as FCCJ. What has it been, 10 years since the name change? Even the LCD ribbon displays, which you'd think could be changed by typing two letters on a keyboard somewhere.

[SightseerLounge]

JTA replacing Skyway Vehicles with autonomous vehicles is a silly move. Why didn't they just do like other cities and use them on existing routes. Someone got lazy, and they didn't want to procure new monorail vehicles! This is just First Cost Flyer with the old adjust

[MusicMan]

Unless I'm missing something, this is to complement the existing system, not replace it.  So it's a great idea.  Would love to see the autonomous vehicles being manufactured in the old Ford plant by the river!

This is pretty much what I had in mind when I pitched Jax to Amazon

[thelakelander]

It won't complement. It will replace it by getting rid of the skyway vehicles and running AV shuttle buses on the elevated infrastructure and on the streets.

[ProjectMaximus]

[quote author=SightseerLounge link=topic=28029.msg477052#msg477052 date=1516093151Someone got lazy, and they didn't want to procure new monorail vehicles! This is just First Cost Flyer with the old adjust
[/quote]

They said the cost was prohibitive. The technology is antiquated.

[MusicMan]

Ok that works too. I've been advocating for this for a while. Our street grid downtown should work pretty well for this application. Connecting to Five Point, Springfield/UFHealth, and San Marco should be the next step.

[thelakelander]

You can get to Shands using BRT now. BRT will also get you to Riverside when that line opens. IMO it runs on losing its luster when the talk morphs into mixing these little things into the same lanes as regular auto traffic. When you reach that point, you've destroyed the major positive of the skyway (dedicated ROW) and the potential ability to stimulate TOD along the expanded path. Once that's gone, you might as well save money and run a bus or AV on the street like Tampa, Gainesville and everyone else.

[Sonic101]

So basically, hinder an autonomous vehicle by applying the worst things about a streetcar.

[thelakelander]

Basically, that's my largest concern.....although IMO, it's also crazy to run streetcars in mixed traffic. In both scenarios, you hurt transit reliability and possibly clog up the streets moreso than they are today. It's sort of like advocating for sharrows when the most efficient and safe solution is to separate motorized and non-motorized modes completely.

[Tacachale]

^And how many people do these things hold, and how fast do they go?

[thelakelander]

If something like the Ollie vehicle, you're looking at 12 people max and 12 mph. Vegas currently has a trial version operating on real streets. Tampa and Gainesville will be doing the same, if they haven't already started. However, we may be the first to replace a fixed transit system with them.