Autonomous public transportation could be coming to the Beaches in Duval County.
During a Jan. 21 event, Jacksonville Transportation Authority CEO Nat Ford said the organization was weighing bringing its Neighborhood Autonomous Vehicle Innovation service to the Beaches.
The NAVI service, which presently runs along a 3.5-mile route mostly on Bay Street in Downtown Jacksonville, would be the Beaches’ first autonomous transit option.
“(I) recently received a call. The Beaches are interested in NAVI,” Ford said at the JTA’s State of the Authority event at WJCT Public Media.
“If you’re a tourist coming to visit our beaches, it may not be too far in the future that you can actually hop on NAVI at the Beaches.”
Curtis Ford, the mayor of Atlantic Beach, told the Daily Record he had expressed interest to Patricia Gillum Sams, vice chair of the JTA board, in bringing a NAVI vehicle to the Beaches. He said he did not have conversations with anyone employed by JTA.
“I specifically asked (Sams) if we can get one of those vehicles operating between Atlantic Beach and Jacksonville Beach,” Curtis Ford said. “It sounded in my conversation that it might take a while to get there.”
Ford said he hoped public transportation running in the Beaches would facilitate tourism to visit the communities by reducing concerns about finding parking for personal transportation.
Leaders from Jacksonville Beach and Neptune Beach did not immediately respond to requests for comment from the Daily Record. JTA media representatives did not answer questions seeking details about JTA’s plan.
NAVI is the first portion of JTA’s Ultimate Urban Circulator program, known as U2C. The $65 million first phase provides NAVI service along the Bay Street Innovation Corridor from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. weekdays.
The proposed second phase of the U2C, which includes modifications of the Downtown Skyway tram structure to accommodate autonomous shuttles, is expected to cost $247 million.
The third phase, which would expand the U2C into Brooklyn, San Marco, Springfield, the Southbank and San Marco, is expected to cost $95 million.
Jacksonville City Council member Rory Diamond, a NAVI opponent whose district encompasses the three beach cities, told the Daily Record via text that he did not think there would be much demand for the service at the Beaches.
JTA operates public transit at the Beaches in the form of its Beach Buggy shuttles. Beach Buggy service includes electric carts that seat eight to 10 passengers and 14-seat vans that provide free, on-demand rides at the Beaches and San Marco.
Hours before the State of the Authority event, Ford and other JTA representatives took criticism surrounding fare increases to their Connexion Plus program, including after JTA spent $7 million on NAVI service Downtown.
The Connexion Plus service is JTA’s private, same-day, door-to-door transit service, eligible only for users with disabilities who are unable to use fixed-route services for some or all of their transportation needs, or those who cannot transport themselves due to physical or mental disability, income status or age.
Until Feb. 1, Connexion Plus service costs riders $6 for the first 15 miles and $2 per mile after. JTA’s had planned to increase fees for six-month pilot program, raising them $10 for the first 8 miles and $3.50 per mile after.
During its Jan. 22 board meeting, the JTA board agreed to hold off on changing Connexion Plus fares for the six-month pilot until April 2.
“You’re spending hundreds of millions of dollars on an autonomous program no one wants, and we’re saying, ‘Hey, you, who are fully nonwalking, we’re going to charge you more to get to school or work,’” Diamond said.
“I don’t want to be on the Council that says that’s OK.”