This article is the second of five on transit in the U.S. and North America. Read parts One, Three, Four, and Five online.
Transit agencies are beginning to see their role as greater than just getting people from station to station. Today, it’s about helping them get from door to door.
“Our job is to make the customer’s life as easy as possible,” says LA Metro’s Nadine Lee, deputy chief innovation officer. “That’s what’s going to make the system more attractive to people and more useful to them.”
In Phoenix, Valley Metro is partnering with Waymo, a self-driving automobile project — to bring riders to and from light rail stations with autonomous vehicles. Rob Antoniak, Valley Metro's chief operating officer, explains that for now it’s a test program for employees and invited riders, “So we can prep for what it would mean to genuinely integrate a first- and last-mile scenario into our public transportation network for our customers.”
Dozens of Valley Metro employees are in the program, using the Waymo app to set up rides. Members of Valley Metro’s RideChoice program, which is open to paratransit-certified individuals and those older than 65, will also participate, and both groups will be asked about their experience with Waymo and autonomous vehicles.
“We have to be a part of these experiments and these dialogues,” says Antoniak. “If you aren’t forward thinking, then you are a company or a service that’s going to die.”