FOLIO
Words by Kaleb Stowell
For being the largest city in the continental United States by landmass, the city of Jacksonville offers a surprisingly limited number of public transit options. But it seems a new dawn may be on the horizon for the city’s public transportation landscape.
This April, the city of Jacksonville approved a plan to implement 100 Holon autonomous vehicles (AVs) to the downtown Jacksonville area. The plan states that the city will initially purchase 14 self-driving AVs that seat up to 15 passengers each and reserve another 86 to be purchased at a later date. These initial 14 will be purchased at $409,000 each, making almost a $5.8 million investment.
The focus of the initial 14 Holon AVs is to provide service to the Bay Street Innovation Corridor, an area designated by the JTA to be the testing grounds for these AVs. The Bay Street Innovation Corridor is a three-mile stretch next to the TIAA Bank Field. In the time between the approval of these AVs and the actual implementation of the U2C, Ford vans that have been modified with self-driving technology will provide service along this route to test its effectiveness.
The city of Jacksonville is not home to many public transportation options. The bus system is outdated and flawed, travel by train isn’t practical and the Skyway is technologically stunted. It is for these reasons that many residents are excited following the news of the introduction of Holon AVs, as they could introduce a solution to Jacksonville’s public transportation dilemma. However, many residents are worried that this large investment by the city may end up being another failed attempt at providing Jacksonville residents the hassle-free public transportation they want.
Jamy De Vries, a long-time Jacksonville resident and an avid traveler, said, “On paper, the U2C sounds like a great idea, but you couple that with how large Jacksonville is, and the fact that it will probably only service Downtown… you have a glorified parking-lot-to-stadium service.” De Vries also claimed that a city like Jacksonville would benefit a lot from a convenient subway system or tram that runs consistently so that people would be more motivated to actually use the services.
De Vries is not alone in his judgment of the U2C, many Jacksonville residents have been quick to voice their concern about the project. One such individual is Zachary Yaros, a lifelong Jacksonville resident who has never owned a car. Yaros stated, “Even as someone who stands a lot to gain from the addition of the U2C, I don’t see it expanding its services to an area that would genuinely benefit my day-to-day life.” Yaros lives in Orange Park, an area of Jacksonville that the JTA has not announced any plans of extending the U2C to. However, Yaros also stated that he is an avid Jacksonville Jaguars fan and frequently makes the commute to Downtown Jacksonville. “If this new system is as efficient as it claims and these AVs actually arrive every 5-7 minutes, then I could definitely see it being useful during busy Downtown events. It might even make the flow of traffic in and out of the Jags games better,” said Yaros.
A modernization and extension of the Jacksonville Skyway was also included in the plan for the U2C. Jacksonville’s Skyway was previously infamous for being incredibly slow, inefficient and an overall waste of time. However, according to this new plan from the JTA, the Skyway could see some changes to make it a viable mode of transportation for those in the area.
The location for the Holon AV manufacturing facility was chosen to be the Imerson Industrial Park, where the factory will produce autonomous vehicles for cities around the country.
We reached out to the JTA for an interview regarding these public transport changes but did not get a response.
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