Opinion: Keeping BART ahead of the game means pursuing driver-less technology

In a recent talk at Walnut Creek, Marc Joffe of the Cato Institute argues that since BART will only attract customers through frequent service—and rides are currently often canceled because hiring operators comes at a high price—we should prioritize developing the tech to make existing tracks driver-less. This, says Joffe, makes more sense than extension projects, which may not attract riders.

I'm a believer in the transit activist view that you have to have very frequent service to attract people. Because a big inhibitor is, you get to a station, and you see “Next train in 20 minutes,” 25 minutes. That turns you off from riding. If it's five or four or three, then it's like, “Okay, I'm going to get into the habit of coming here and using it.” So I think that really having frequent service throughout the entire day, not just the rush hour, is very important. But operators are very expensive. And in fact, there's a shortage of them. A lot of BART trains get canceled because they can't find operators. So we really need to develop the technology to have driver-less trains.

Now, I think there's a couple things that need to happen there.... And then while BART was originally designed to be an automated system, it's very antiquated, so a lot of that technology is going to have to be updated to be able to support this type of thing.

But I would submit to you that we have X amount of capital money. It should be spent on making existing the tracks driver-less, as opposed to adding new tracks that aren't going to get adequate ridership...

(6:22–7:51)

Watch the whole thing here.

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