UFTI Collaborates with JTA on Future of Transit Project

The University of Florida Transportation Institute (UFTI) is working with the Jacksonville Transportation Authority (JTA) on the Future of Transit project. With the changing mobility marketplace, it’s important for JTA to asses emerging technologies and business models to anticipate future transportation trends.

The Future of Transit project informs JTA on the impacts of connected and autonomous vehicles (CAVs) and shared mobility on the transit industry. Shared mobility refers to services that connect customers to drivers or vehicles (e.g. cars, bikes, scooters) and often include automated scheduling and payment. A key example of shared mobility would be Transportation Network Companies (TNC) such as Lyft or Uber.

UFTI’s Dr. Siva Srinivasan serves as the PI on the project and Dr. Ruth Steiner is the Co-PI. The project also relies on UFTI staff and graduate students. “This has been a great opportunity to work with JTA to get an on-the ground perspective of the challenges transit agencies face with the changes in transportation technologies,” Dr. Steiner said. “We expect transit agencies to continue to evolve to address new transportation technologies, whether it is vehicle technology or competitive providers. We hope that JTA has benefited from the partnership with UFTI in preparing for a future with evolving technologies.”

So far, the UFTI team has:

  • Facilitated a Future Mobility charrette that include several government organizations in Northeast Florida
  • A paper accepted for publication on CAVs and shared mobility
  • Developed, administered and analyzed results of a survey of transit agencies perceptions of CAVs and shared mobility
  • Developed and administered a survey of Jacksonville residents’ perceptions of AV technology

UFTI’s efforts are enabling JTA to better understanding how JTA can put emerging technologies to good use. UFTI is letting JTA know how CAV technologies and shared mobility are viewed by JTA’s peer transit agencies and JTA’s customers. “As JTA builds its shared mobility and CAV programs, I expect that working with UFTI will keep that ‘ride’ as smooth as possible for JTA and its customers,” said Kevin Salzer, JTA Transportation Innovation Officer.