Honolulu Is Building America's First Fully Driverless Transit System - CityLab

[JohnH_in_OKC]

Might this be our model for connecting OKC to Edmond, Norman, Midwest City, El Reno?

Honolulu Is Building America's First Fully Driverless Transit System - CityLab

http://www.citylab.com/tech/2014/09/...system/380292/
By AMY CRAWFORD @amymcrawf Sep 17, 2014 53 Comments


A rendering of a rail canopy at a new HART station, which is scheduled to begin operations in 2017. (Honolulu Authority for Rapid Transportation)

Perfect weather and sandy beaches might spring to mind when a mainlander thinks of Honolulu. But this metro area of nearly 1 million people is far from paradise for those who get stuck in its notorious traffic, which competes with Los Angeles for the title of worst in the United States.

"Anybody who flies into Honolulu and drives into town—heading to Waikiki, for example—you are immediately struck by the H-1 freeway, seven lanes of traffic going in the same direction," says Dan Grabauskas, executive director and CEO of the Honolulu Authority for Rapid Transportation *(HART). "And if you land at rush hour, it's a standstill. It surprises people when they come here, to see how much congestion we face."

HART is working on an alternative to that miserable commute: a 20-mile elevated rail line—a first for the islands—that will whisk passengers between downtown and outlying communities in a fraction of the time it currently takes to crawl through rush hour traffic. With the first trips planned for 2017, the $5.2 billion Honolulu Rail Transit Project is expected to reduce congestion by 18 percent, taking as many as 40,000 automobiles off the road and replacing them with a fleet of four-car trains that can accommodate up to 800 riders, with racks for both bicycles and surfboards.

But surfboard storage will not be the project's only unique feature; this will also be the first fully automated wide-scale urban transit system in the United States. Instead of human drivers, a centrally-located computer system will control stops, departures, and speed, and even open and close doors. Operation will be cheaper than for manually-driven rail, says Grabauskas, and he also expects it to be safer. "There are transit systems where driver error has caused collisions or other incidents," he says. "The driverless operation we have is going to be very safe."

It should also be more reliable. Eliminating the unpredictability of human drivers will help trains stick to their schedules, and consistent acceleration and deceleration means they can safely run closer together. Over the course of a 20-hour daily schedule, system managers will also be able to increase the frequency of service in response to demand, without having to call in additional personnel. "We can make pretty nimble service changes," Grabauskas says, "almost literally with the press of a button. Driverless systems offer tremendous advantages."


HART's new trains (rendered above) will be the first truly driverless ones on a wide-scale U.S. transit system. (Honolulu Authority for Rapid Transportation)

Despite his enthusiasm—and that of Honolulu Mayor Kirk Caldwell and local business leaders—truly driverless transit has yet to catch on elsewhere in the United States. While many urban systems have some level of automation, including New York's subway and the San Francisco Bay Area's BART, right now only people-movers like the AirTrain at JFK Airport and the monorail along the Las Vegas Strip run without human operators. That's not the case elsewhere in the world. Driverless trains have become fairly common in Asia and in Europe, where Paris automated its oldest and busiest Metro line in 2012, increasing passengers per hour by 25 percent.

Honolulu's system is modeled on the Copenhagen Metro, which has been operating since 2002 and won "best subway" at the international MetroRail conference in 2008. Grabauskas reports "a tremendous amount of interest" in Honolulu's system among his mainland U.S. colleagues. But Louis Sanders, director of technical services at the American Public Transportation Association, says not to expect established systems to go driverless any time soon.

One might expect transit worker unions to be the primary obstacle—after all, a driverless system puts drivers out of work. But while unions have balked at taking drivers off automated trains in London and New York, Sanders says it isn't labor that's holding back automation. Nor is it safety questions, despite the 2009 crash of an automated (though staffed) Metro train in Washington, D.C., which killed nine people and forced the transit agency to run trains manually until the aging automatic system can be updated.



Renderings of the Airport (top) and East Kapolei stations. (Honolulu Authority for Rapid Transportation)

"I think people will be accepting of it," says Sanders, noting that driverless trains are generally equipped with obstacle detection capabilities, closed-circuit cameras, and emergency communication systems. "People get on people-movers at airports." The big issue, he says, is that despite the potential savings down the line, it's expensive to convert existing systems into driverless ones. The technology in place for semi-autonomous transit in New York, Chicago, and San Francisco was put in place years ago and would take loads of money—and political will—to overhaul completely. "To take advantage of driverless, you have to change everything you do," Sanders says.

In Honolulu, which is starting from scratch, automation was perhaps the easiest thing about making the system a reality. The rail line was "decades in the making," says Jennifer Sabas, former chief of staff to Hawaii's Sen. Daniel Inouye, who secured $1.5 billion in federal funding for the rail line before his death in 2012. Sabas now serves as executive director of Move Oahu Forward, a business- and labor-backed non-profit organized to support the line in the face of opposition from residents and politicians who argued that the elevated tracks and stations would loom over the landscape, and that the system, which will be funded by a half-cent surcharge on the state's general excise tax in addition to the federal contribution, simply cost too much. "Since there was such an issue over whether to even build a train, the driverless aspect hasn't gotten much attention," says Sabas.

Attitudes toward rail transit appear to be changing—especially since traffic on Oahu is only getting worse.

Getting car-centric Honolulu to embrace rail was a struggle, but now that construction is visibly underway, attitudes appear to be changing—especially since traffic on Oahu is only getting worse. "You have communities where people have to sit in traffic for an hour and a half," says Sabas. "Polling data shows that those who live in the most congested areas and are fighting traffic every day are the most supportive of the rail line."

But it's not just commuters who stand to benefit. Some 8 million people visit Hawaii every year, and for many of them the new driverless rail line will help set their first impression of the islands. That's something many in the local tourism industry are banking on—and it might also help make the case for driverless transit elsewhere in the United States.

This article is part of 'The Future of Transportation,' a CityLab series made possible with support from The Rockefeller Foundation.

[JohnH_in_OKC]

If Oklahoma County, Cleveland County & Canadian County all join in a regional transportation plan & vote for a 1¢ sales tax, we could devote half to prepay building a future regional transit rail line & half to operating our county-wide bus & trolley system. When, and if, the regional transit line is built, then the entire penny can be devoted to transit operating costs.

Oklahoma County might initiate such a plan with first devoting half of the penny tax to building a new county jail. A mass transit/new jail plan might excite voters enough to actually vote for the new jail, knowing their pennies will be fully devoted to transportation after the jail is built. If the other counties vote to devote a penny tax to transportation, a bus rapid transit (BRT) could be set up to connect to our downtown & they could also begin their own city bus systems or improve upon what they already have. Norman & Edmond both have very good systems (including existing BRT to OKC), but Edmond does not operate theirs on weekends & Norman does not operate its Norman to OKC BRT on weekends (which should at least be running on football game days). I know I would love to ride the Norman-OKC BRT on game days & avoid the parking hassle. The BRT's would not be needed if & when a regional rail system is built.

One great thing about Oklahoma County passing a penny tax (with half devoted to operating transit) is that it would allow a grid transit plan to be implemented which would allow buses to travel from far North May to far South May; a S. 29th Street bus route from Midwest City though Del City, Capitol Hill to perhaps MacArthur or even Council Rd; a N 63rd route from Rockwell to the NE Health & Wellness Center just East of MLK & other grid oriented routes. We could serve much more of Oklahoma County that is currently underserved & with schedules that extend to midnight & beyond.

I again submit the proposal that our existing Cox Convention Center is the perfect location for our future OKC transit center & (secondary) arena.

[boitoirich]

I'm very excited for HART. When I lived in Honolulu, the fastest way between Waikiki and the University of Hawaii was by bike. Driving is an absolutely nightmare in the city. Fortunately, the inner city is very walkable. Driving crosstown, however, is similar to doing so in L.A. Ain't nobody got time for that -- quite literally.

[Plutonic Panda]

Man a system like that would be badass to see here no doubt.

I'm a huge supporter of nice highways, but I do wonder if it would be feasible to just cut all non-emergency highway projects in the metro for four years to save up money for a metro wide light rail system and then the the expansions can be paid by bonds or perhaps a special permanent one cent sales tax increase for mass transit.

[Snowman]

This may be a bit of a quibble about area served but there has been driver less mass transit in the US that covered several miles distance, maybe it was not the entire city or the entire system but in the US serving the entire city really only happens now if the city was blocked from expansion by either natural barriers or other cities annexing the land in the metro area first.

Might this be our model for connecting OKC to Edmond, Norman, Midwest City, El Reno?

The thing is none of these areas are dense enough to to fully utilize bus mass transit today, just reducing the cost of the driver is pretty small compared to all the other things to start/maintain service, subsidizing housing similar to what has been going up in Deep Deuce near the planed transit stop(s) seems more likely to be effective at getting the ridership for trains than any near term technology improvements to the trains. Plus several of the city's with systems that are driver less still employ people on the trains, just now there role is more security and hospitality.

[jompster]

I was always a fan of the metro buses in Honolulu. I could put in an address in Google Maps, select bus, and it would tell me which stop to go to and show any transfer points. It was very efficient and buses ran to each stop roughly every ten minutes or so. If we could do a rail system with the efficiency that theirs most likely will be, then it would be a great thing. Of course, we're talking about two VERY different cities.

[boitoirich]

Two very different cities, indeed! The rough area of walkability in Oklahoma City extends is bounded by Classen Blvd, NW 13th St, Broadway Extension, and Reno Ave. That's a fraction of a square mile of walkable real estate, with much of it in need of infill. Walkable Honolulu is roughly 4.5 miles (3 miles east to west from Downtown/Chinatown to the zoo east of Waikiki, and one mile north to south from the ocean to the Punchbowl & University of Hawaii). Much of that is already densely developed. While the downtown neighborhoods of OKC are still coming online, core Honolulu neighborhoods such as Kaimuki average 18,000+ residents per square mile. Waikiki is at about 20,000 residents in its one square mile imprint. If there is any city in need of a mass transit option, and yesterday, it is Honolulu.

[jompster]

LOL Punchbowl... brings back bad memories of a long hike up the side of a tuff cone. (Thanks Google for telling me to get off at the wrong stop!)

You're right. We do need more infill, and more walkable areas. I think that the sidewalk project is a great start in some areas, but the thing with Honolulu is that there are so many "destination" areas that are easily served. But I think it has been discussed here before that, with OKC being in love with the automobile, we may not ever see mass transit on that scale. Personally, I'd love to be able to walk three or four blocks to catch a bus at any fifteen-minute interval to hop downtown, do some shopping, and then bus back home... WITHOUT it taking three hours. Not gonna lie, Walmart is convenient, and it was even more so in HNL when I could catch the 2 to the 13, get my tea and bread, and then hop back on the bus and be done with it all in under an hour.

[boitoirich]

I did Sam's Club, but only because my friend had a car and we could just load up the trunk. $8 bucks for cereal?! Thank goodness I didn't need a car and could just walk to work at Ala Moana.

OKC needs to get the bus system figured out first, and change to a form-based code in the inner neighborhoods.

[HOT ROD]

Surprised the HNL story did not have not ONE mention of the world's largest (and oldest) fully-automated metro subway network; Vancouver's SkyTrain. Serving 400,000+ pax per day currently on 3 lines (and expanding).