ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT Fast Track To The Future Autonomous vehicles will be a part of local transportation future
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hen you look back to visions of the future, you’d think we’d have flying cars by now. Unfortunately, we will have to settle for earthbound travel for most of our transportation. But, if you’re taking CTFastrak between New Britain and Hartford, your ride will be very futuristic as the state intends on implementing driverless electric buses for large tracts of the route. In June of this year, the Connecticut Department of Transportation announced that it had received nearly $40 million in grants to be used on multiple projects throughout the state, including more train service on the Hartford Line, rebuilding a railroad bridge in Norwalk, as well as the aforementioned self-driving buses and technology according to the State’s press release. The electric buses will be used on the CTfastrak rapid bus transit corridor, of which there are 15 on order. As CT&C wrote in the May issue, there are many benefits to electric buses, primary of which is the cost of fueling. But the interesting part is that the buses will be fully automated for parts of the route. CTDOT describes the program as a first in the nation for automated technology. Automated technologies demonstrated will include steering, precision docking at CTfastrak station platforms, and platooning, all of which can enhance service and improve safety for drivers and passengers.
For those concerned about implementing without testing, the State plans to do extensive testing on an off-road facility first before bringing it to the streets. As an added safety guarantee, there will always be a driver on board who will take control if necessary. The driver will also manually drive on downtown Hartford mixed-traffic roadways. New Flyer, the company that created the technology for transit buses, said that they have leveraged “the internet of things (an extension of internet connectivity to physical devices and everyday objects) to build connectivity in sharing public roadways.” Back in 2018, Connecticut set guidelines for vehicle testing, and municipalities such as Stamford and New Haven had applied for testing. New Haven was planning for an autonomous shuttle between the Yale New Haven Hospital and St. Raphael campuses. If testing goes well and the technology improves, many towns and cities across Connecticut might soon develop plans for driverless transportation options around town, from the train station to down town, or around a university campus. We might not yet have flying cars, but every year we inch towards newer technologies that can make our streets safer and a little more modern.
2021 | INNOVATIVE IDEAS | 17
