Youngstown gets self driving bus sorta…
Youngstown gets self driving bus sorta…
Youngstown’s new self-driving electric bus is almost here, but in a twist that could only come from government logic, it requires a driver at all times. That’s right—despite spending $696,435 on a vehicle designed to drive itself, the city is also paying a human to sit there and watch it happen. The 10-seat bus, set to hit the streets by mid-February, will travel a thrilling 0.6 miles along Federal Street, from the WRTA station to South Avenue. And just to add to the absurdity, the city’s board of control just threw in an extra $14,388 for tracking software and route modifications—because, apparently, the bus that doesn’t need a driver also can’t figure out how to avoid construction. If this cutting-edge transportation experiment proves successful, WRTA will take over operations after June. But if it flops?
The city will own a very expensive, glorified golf cart with nowhere to go.
So why did Youngstown even buy this self-driving, yet not-really-self-driving bus? Because it had to. The purchase was a condition of receiving $10.85 million in federal BUILD grant money, which funded a $28.5 million downtown renovation project that, ironically, made traffic worse for months. Between reducing driving lanes, expanding sidewalks, and repaving roads, the SMART2 project changed downtown so much that maybe a self-driving bus was the only thing patient enough to navigate it. But before the bus can start its half-mile back-and-forth shuffle, it’s still undergoing testing. Meanwhile, city officials are puzzled by the fact that their driverless bus legally isn’t allowed to be driverless. Deputy Director of Public Works Charles Shasho summed it up best: “I was hoping we wouldn’t have to put a driver in it.”
Same, Charles. Same.
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