Funds Would be Better Spent on Workforce Development for new Zero Emission Buses to Help Fight Climate Change
Silver Spring, MD – Citing serious public safety concerns with unproven and risky Autonomous Vehicle (AV) technology, the Amalgamated Transit Union (ATU), representing the workers at New Jersey Transit (NJT), strongly urges the New Jersey Department of Transportation (NJDOT) to pump the brakes on the proposed Trenton MOVES Autonomous Vehicle-Based Urban Transit System Project announced today in the State Capital.
NJDOT announced a request for expressions of interest for what is being called the Trenton Mobility & Opportunity: Vehicles Equity System (MOVES) Project, which will include a network of self-driving shuttles with the ability to carry four to eight passengers at a time.
“The current technology in AVs have time and time again been proven to be unsafe. People have died and been badly injured by AVs. Self-driving vehicles being tested on city streets with our most vulnerable populations, children and seniors, is reckless,” said ATU International President John A. Costa, a former rail maintenance worker at NJT and the former head of ATU’s NJ State Council.
In December, the City of Toronto suspended its trial of a self-driving bus after a similar one crashed into a tree in nearby suburbs, critically injuring the onboard attendant. Just months before, Toyota announced an immediate halt to its all-electric autonomous buses that had been ferrying athletes and staff around the Olympic Village in Japan—after it collided with a visually-impaired Japanese athlete attempting to cross the road at a crosswalk. In 2020, the federal government’s highway safety agency ordered an autonomous shuttle company to stop carrying passengers in 17 cities after a mysterious braking problem occurred in Columbus, Ohio.
“Do we really want these untested vehicles barreling down the streets of Trenton without a human eye to keep us safe?” said Costa. “Rather than pursuing technology that looks like it came out of the old ‘Jetsons’ cartoon, let’s put people first.”
The ATU strongly urges the NJ DOT to instead spend their funds on workforce development – training current and future NJT workers to get up to speed on the new zero emission buses that will be pouring onto New Jersey streets in the next decade in response to the state legislature’s mandate and the new federal infrastructure bill recently signed by President Biden which includes billions of dollars for brand new zero emission buses.
“Let’s get those buses safely on the road before we start experimenting with unproven, unmanned technology which can turn riders into crash dummies,” said Costa.
“We’ve got a climate crisis and a massive shortage of workers at NJT. And of the workers we do have, especially on the maintenance side, more than 90% don’t have the skills needed to properly maintain and repair the new electric buses safely. Why are we not focusing resources in meeting these immediate challenges?” Costa continued. “Furthermore, NJ Transit has a proven record of passenger transportation that can be scaled up now in Trenton using the current generation of zero emission buses without adding to air pollution problems that plague cities in NJ like Trenton. Our skilled members of the ATU stand ready to provide the service!”
Buses run on roads shared with other vehicles, pedestrians, and bicyclists. The interaction between AV buses and unpredictable human beings creates safety hazards that may take decades to overcome if they can be addressed at all. Unless we build infrastructure for AV buses to perform in their own secluded environment as we have done for planes and trains, the risk of disaster will always be present. There is no substitution for the human eye. Bus drivers who see pedestrians preparing to enter a crosswalk are able to make eye contact with that person, waving them on safely. That type of interaction will likely never be able to be replicated by an AV bus.