Smart Columbus Linden LEAP Shuttle.
So far, autonomous shuttle services – like those from May Mobility or Navya – have tended to operate mostly in busy downtown areas. This week, the city of Columbus, Ohio unveiled the Linden LEAP, which it is calling “the nation’s first daily-operating public self-driving shuttle to operate in a residential area.”
That residential area is the Linden neighborhood, as you might suspect (the LEAP name itself stands for Linden Empowers All People) and the people who live there will soon have access to two all-electric, autonomous shuttles that will cruise through the area, starting and ending at the Linden Transit Center. The entire 2.9-mile route takes 24 minutes to ride, and with two shuttles in operation, each of the four stops should get service every 12 minutes. This is not a 24/7 operation, but instead runs from 6 am until 8 pm each day, but with two breaks in service on weekdays, from 8-9:30 am and from 2-3:30 pm. There are no costs to local residents to ride the shuttles, and kids as young as 12 can ride on their own.
The LEAP shuttles come from EasyMile and have a top speed of 25 miles per hour. They can fit 12 people, and are wheelchair accessible. Even though the shuttles can and do drive themselves, a real human (called a “customer service ambassador”) will ride in each vehicle in order to take control if needed. It’s unlikely to happen often, since EasyMile already has two dozen other autonomous technology projects operating around the world and says that its EZ10 autonomous vehicle is the “most deployed driverless shuttle in the world.”
The overall goals of the project include connecting the community to jobs and services, as well as to community centers and food sources. The Linden LEAP is also meant to encourage overall transit use and to reduce traffic congestion and greenhouse gas emissions in the area. The Linden LEAP project is a pilot program and is expected to last one year. After that, the organizers will talk to the community and other stakeholders to determine what will happen next.
Funding for the Linden LEAP comes from a $40-million U.S. Department of Transportation’s Smart City Challenge grant that Columbus won in June 2016. Columbus was one of seven finalists for this grant, and the win spurred a number of other mobility projects in the area, including a $10-million grant from the Paul G. Allen Family Foundation that is bringing electric vehicles to local fleets and starting a connected vehicle environment that allows vehicles and traffic signals to communicate with each other.
