Archinect - News 2024-12-22T14:51:30-05:00 https://archinect.com/news/article/150140718/dallas-joins-aecom-s-automated-bus-research-group Dallas joins AECOM's Automated Bus Research Group Antonio Pacheco 2019-06-11T10:15:00-04:00 >2019-06-10T21:03:36-04:00 <img src="https://archinect.gumlet.io/uploads/ac/ac8739820febff5c184edb4e3f1d3740.jpg?fit=crop&auto=compress%2Cformat&enlarge=true&w=1200" border="0" /><em><p>Dallas Area Rapid Transit&nbsp;has joined a national effort to explore how autonomous buses could shuttle&nbsp;people around cities in the future.&nbsp; It is&nbsp;one of about a dozen transportation agencies that are part of the&nbsp;Automated Bus Consortium,&nbsp;which will research driverless buses and run pilot projects to better understand how they could be rolled out nationwide.</p></em><br /><br /><p>The <a href="http://www.automatedbusconsortium.com/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">consortium</a>, whose membership includes the transit agencies of Los Angeles County and Atlanta, and the Michigan Department of Transportation, was created by <a href="https://archinect.com/news/tag/60522/aecom" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">AECOM</a> and aims to begin testing a fleet of 75 to 100 full-sized automated buses in major cities by 2021 or 2022.&nbsp;</p> <p>Todd Plesko, <a href="https://archinect.com/news/tag/107068/dallas" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Dallas</a> Area Rapid Transit's vice president for service planning and scheduling told <em>Dallas News</em>, "My goal is&nbsp;to drive the cost down of operation of this service and increase the safety so we'll have fewer accidents. But it has to be done in a way that we bring the customers along so it doesn't frighten&nbsp;them, so they feel the technology benefits them."</p>