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The first six pilot buses will go out for active field testing in the first week of July 2017.
(Ginger Christ / The Plain Dealer)
CLEVELAND, Ohio - The Greater Cleveland Regional Transit Authority in early 2017 will begin testing new connected vehicle technology on its buses.
Using $2.7 million in grant funding from the Federal Transit Administration, RTA will work with Battelle Memorial Institute - a nonprofit research and development organization - to test new technologies designed to reduce the number of pedestrian and vehicle collisions.
"As well as the eyes and ears and mental preparation of our bus operators, what else can we do for them to make sure that we avoid collisions...?" Rich Czeck, RTA safety director, said Tuesday during an RTA safety and security committee meeting.
RTA received funding to test two programs: The Enhanced Transit Safety Retrofit Package (E-TRP) and the Transit Bus Stop Pedestrian Warning (TSPW).
The E-TRP program involves using vehicle-to-infrastructure (V2I) technology to avoid collisions with pedestrians in or near intersections and crosswalks, as well as vehicle-to-vehicle (V2V) technology to warn drivers when buses are about to be cut off. Specifically, the V2V technology will target vehicles that drive up along the left side of a bus, then make a right-hand turn in front of it.
"That's a dangerous move and we need to keep our passengers and our operators safe," Czeck said.
Backup cameras also will be installed on buses.
The TSPW program will alert pedestrians when there is a bus coming to or exiting from a bus stop so that they can avoid the danger zone.
The first six pilot buses will go out for active field testing in the first week of July 2017. The first of those buses was outfitted last week by Battelle.
Testing of the vehicle-passing-on-the-left technology will begin in early 2017 and will be conducted at RTA's former Harvard District bus garage. Battelle will bring in its own car to complete the testing.
In total, 91 RTA buses and five to 10 intersections will be involved in the connected vehicle technology tests.
Bringing connected vehicle technology to public transit to protect pedestrians is increasingly important as more people are distracted at stops and intersections by their phones, according to Joe Calabrese, RTA CEO.
The goal of these projects is "to see if this technology worked in public transit and have this be a standard on buses moving forward," Calabrese said.
The two-year grant was awarded in February 2015 and likely will last through the end of 2017, according to RTA.