Title
Resolution for Joint Participation Agreement (JPA) - Service Development Grant Funds for Regional Transit System (RTS) for the Gainesville Autonomous Transit Shuttle (GAToRS) Project with Florida Department of Transportation (FDOT) (B)
This item is a request for a Resolution authorizing the City Manager or his authorized designee to execute a Joint Participation Agreement between the City of Gainesville and FDOT to receive Service Development Grant Funds for the GAToRS Project.
Explanation
The City of Gainesville Regional Transit System (RTS) and the Florida Department of Transportation (FDOT) are planning to implement an autonomous transit system near the University of Florida campus within downtown Gainesville. The proposed route for the autonomous transit route circumnavigates the City’s Innovation Square on SE 2nd Avenue, SE 13th Street, SE 4th Avenue and South Main Street.
This project, known as Gainesville Autonomous Transit Shuttle (GAToRS), consists of moving people from the downtown area to the University of Florida (UF) along SE 3rd Street, 5th Avenue, Newell Drive, and University Avenue, in order to learn about public attitudes towards automation in transportation. Additionally, FDOT and RTS seek to document the safety benefits of such a service, and would like to bring Highly Automated Vehicles (HAV) to Gainesville within a Connected Vehicle (CV) environment.
An extensive feasibility study was conducted during spring 2017 by FDOT, including field reviews of potential corridors for the routes, meetings with RTS staff (including drivers), safety and traffic data analyses, review of RTS bus routes, ridership, and hours of operation analysis, pedestrian and other potential hazards, and numerous other factors.
Staff has been working with FDOT to develop a Request for Proposals (RFP) for the project, and intends for external (non-RTS) companies to compete for the opportunity to provide HAV service on the selected route. The service needs to be fulfilled by a multi-passenger, shared use, electric HAV with climate control and a variety of other features. The proposer selected for the HAV service will coordinate with UF for testing, developing or analyzing new applications and will use the potential pedestrian, bicyclist, traffic, and traffic control features of the corridor to assist with design and operational strategies to ensure optimal performance and safety of the system.
RTS anticipates that initial GAToRS service will be provided Monday through Friday, and is considering an option for weekend service. Weekday service will consist of 10 consecutive hours of span of service, at 10 minute frequency during peak hours with no less than 20 minute frequency during off peak hours. Fares will not be collected during the demonstration period. The goal is to have a productivity of 10 passengers per hour.
FDOT service development fund allocations are given at FDOT discretion for agency projects that meet FDOT Service Development Grant (SDG) criteria. FDOT requires the governing board of each public transit system to adopt a Resolution authorizing the acceptance of these funds. The estimated three-year project budget is $2,250,000; the first year’s funding in the JPA is budgeted at $733,333; the remaining two years of the project budget will be funded in Supplemental Joint Participation Agreements for each of the project’s two subsequent years.
Fiscal Note
The Joint Participation Agreement (JPA) for this project does not require any matching City funds.
Recommendation
The City Commission adopt the Resolution.