S.F. Asks For $50M From Feds For Self-Driving Mass Transit
San Francisco is bidding for a $50M grant from Washington to build a self-driving municipal transit system. If the Department of Transportation selects S.F., the city’s landscape will undergo a fundamental transformation—freeing up large tracts of parking space for other development.
The SFMTA pitched the proposal to automate Muni buses, light rail, ferry lines and even garbage trucks to DOT secretary Anthony Foxx last week, reports Curbed. San Francisco is in competition with six other cities (Austin, Portland, Cleveland, Kansas City, Denver and Pittsburgh) that survived the original 78-city pool.
Under the proposal, parking space would be redundant in the “shared electric connected automated model,” according to materials submitted by the SFMTA. The newly freed space could become a future location of affordable housing. [SFC]
