Mayor Freddie O’Connell thanked his supporters after early returns were announced.
Mayor Freddie O’Connell thanked his supporters after early returns were announced.
Robert Hampshire, the U.S. Department of Transportation’s Chief Science Officer for Research and Technology, took a drive down parts of Murfreesboro Pike and Nolensville Pike Wednesday morning.
Hampshire, escorted by officials with the Nashville Department of Transportation and WeGo, was getting a firsthand look at the two major thoroughfares set to undergo significant technological improvements thanks to nearly $12 million in USDOT grants.
After that drive, Hampshire and other local officials including Mayor Freddie O’Connell announced two Strengthening Mobility and Revolutionizing Transportation (SMART) Grant awards in a news conference at the new transit center in North Nashville. One of them, a $10.9 million award, will support the largest installation of “LiDAR” technology in the country along the Nolensville Pike corridor, and the other $2 million grant will help WeGo optimize its route along Murfreesboro Pike.
The additional funding will allow local transit leaders, along with university partners with Vanderbilt University, Tennessee State University and the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga, to move forward with a collaboration that’s already been in progress.
“We’re trying to build a more connected city through investments in all three of safer streets, better transit and technology,” O’Connell said Wednesday. “The fact that we’ve got university partners, students and researchers, here with us today is also a demonstration that we are stepping outside of the ivory tower to combine rubber, road and code.”
What is LiDAR?
Hampshire describes LiDAR as a “cutting-edge” technology. It works by shooting out light into a space and, once it’s reflected back, mapping out the distance between objects and what their shapes might look like.
The technology is already in use outside the North Nashville transit center, and Vanderbilt’s Institute for Software Integrated Systems can use it to visualize the shapes of cars, buses and pedestrians as they move in and out of a LiDAR sensor’s range in real time.
Importantly, Hampshire told The Tennessean, LiDAR doesn’t capture any personal identifiable information. That means that it can’t replicate a pedestrian’s face, a license plate or even the color of a car as it drives down the road.
Hampshire said LiDAR isn’t a surveillance tool but rather a type of preventative safety technology that can be used to detect “near-miss” crashes and prevent them proactively. Other cities across the U.S. are also starting to incorporate LiDAR in some projects, Hampshire said, but none on this scale.
“Really, the important thing is the rest of the country really will be looking at Nashville to see how it works out,” Hampshire told The Tennessean. “You really are on the cutting edge here in Nashville, and everyone is looking to learn from what comes from this project.”
How WeGo will enhance its highest-traffic route
Simultaneously, Hampshire said LiDAR could also be used to help bus routes run more smoothly. For one example, NDOT will be able to use the technology to identify when trains might be crossing at the high-traffic intersection of the tracks and Nolensville Pike near the Wedgewood Houston neighborhood, allowing buses to reroute in real time and avoid running behind schedule.
The infusion of federal funding will be a boon along Murfreesboro Pike, which is the route with WeGo’s highest ridership. About 5,000 of the roughly 30,000 people who utilize WeGo transit on a typical weekday are riding on the Murfreesboro Pike route.
Grant-funded improvements along that route will incorporate artificial intelligence, including the implementation of computer aided dispatch, automated vehicle location systems and traffic-adaptive signals.
The SMART Grant projects will join the many other improvements included in O’Connell’s sweeping $3.1 billion Choose How You Move Transportation Improvement Plan. Hampshire said that’s one good example of the “tremendous momentum” behind transportation improvements in Nashville.
“It’s no accident that we’re here,” Hampshire said. “There’s terrific leadership in Nashville on these topics, so we’re looking to partner with the local community. This is the place to be for transportation.”