Project Summary
California transit agencies face chronic operator shortages, rising labor costs, and severe post-pandemic financial pressures. Is transit bus automation a viable solution? Key questions remain about whether automation would generate meaningful operational and financial benefits, and whether riders would accept driverless transit vehicles. This project addresses those questions through a one-year collaboration between UC Irvine and UC Davis. The first part develops and applies a mathematical modeling framework to estimate the financial viability, cost savings, and impacts on operations and route network design of bus automation in real-world transit systems, with a case study of the Santa Clara Valley Transportation Authority. The second part assesses travelers’ willingness to ride transit vehicles with a driver, a non-driver transit employee, or no employee on board using focus groups and a survey asking riders to choose among hypothetical options (stated-preference survey). Together, these parts will generate policy-relevant evidence on rider acceptance, operational redesign, and investment priorities, helping California determine under which conditions transit bus automation could provide public value.
