Marin transportation agency weighs AI, robotaxi options

With an eye toward the future, Marin transportation planners appear to be embracing artificial intelligence and other tech innovations involving transit and traffic safety.

In one example, officials at the Transportation Authority of Marin are expressing interest in welcoming robotaxi services to fill needs that traditional transit is unable to meet.

Mikaela Hiatt, a planner at the agency, said the robotaxi company Waymo is planning an expansion to wine country and the Sacramento area. The company has no immediate plans for Marin, but the service is expected to come to the county at some point, Hiatt said.

Marin County Supervisor Brian Colbert, a board member for the agency, said Waymo goes to the counties that show “we want you to be here.”

“What comes to mind for me is, I’d like for us to raise our hand and look for opportunities on microtransit, autonomous microtransit,” said Supervisor Mary Sackett, also a board member.

Sackett said short-trip service is needed around Sonoma-Marin Area Rail Transit stations, and autonomous microtransit could possibly take on school routes, too.

“That’s where I’d like to see it go first,” Sackett said.

Urban Carmel, a board member who serves on the Mill Valley City Council, said a company called Zoox offers this type of service.

“I think this is a really ripe area for us,” Carmel said.

The discussion at a Transportation Authority of Marin executive committee meeting on Feb. 9 was a followup to an innovation workshop the agency conducted in the fall. The event in October included an expert panel to help guide the discussion on trends.

Transportation Authority of Marin staff presented a proposed “road map” exploring how tech could help the agency make decisions and improve road safety, and how the agency could prepare for autonomous vehicles.

The effort is part of the agency’s “innovative technology” program, which is funded with about $150,000 annually, or 0.5% of revenue from Measure AA, the half-cent sales tax. That could change soon under a proposed reallocation of tax revenue.

A draft Measure AA spending plan would eliminate the “innovative technology” category. Revenue would instead be fed into a new “reimagined roadway” fund for major road projects on key Marin corridors.

Derek McGill, the agency’s director of planning, said it has about $515,000 in innovation funds programmed and another $321,000 or so remaining.

Hiatt said the road map includes five categories across three themes.

The first theme is implementing the countywide transportation plan, a 25-year plan that focuses on multimodal travel and adapting to climate change, which includes protecting roads from rising seas. Staff propose to make progress on the plan through advancing data collection to inform decisions.

To that end, the agency is working on deploying bicycle and pedestrian counters throughout the county to help monitor path and road use. The data influence project proposals and prioritization.

The agency also is drafting a data strategic plan that defines data types, collection process, reporting formats and more, Hiatt said. That plan is expected to be presented in the spring.

A second theme of the road map is safety. Hiatt said the agency is looking to artificial intelligence to assist.

“Last year, staff began development of an agency AI policy,” Hiatt said. “This was really big across the region. How does AI relate to the work that we’re doing? How do we use it as staff?”

Last year, the agency partnered with San Rafael on a project with Waypoint Transit, an AI company, to conduct a study of the Lincoln Avenue corridor. Corridor studies look at problems with the road layouts and suggest improvements to make them safer and circulate people more efficiently.

Hiatt said artificial intelligence could be integrated into planning studies for projects that would be funded by through proposed Measure AA “reimagined roadways” program.

Staff are also exploring AI chatbots for project specific websites and ChatGPT licenses have been made available to agency staff to help develop staff reports, presentations and research.

In the realm of infrastructure, the agency is outfitting traffic lights throughout the county with “intelligent traffic management systems.” The systems use sensors and data processing to improve traffic light patterns, including giving priority to emergency vehicles, in an effort to reduce collisions.

Melissa Blaustein, a board member representing the Sausalito City Council, said she has concerns about using technology.

“What sort of guardrail principles are you putting in place when it comes to thinking about potential for human error or economic loss?” she said. “For example, like if you unintentionally create a new technological advancement that then removes 10 jobs in TAM?”

Melanie Purcell, the agency’s finance director, said for a lot of the agencies using AI, “that’s not even on the radar yet.” She said the majority of AI use has some human oversight to make sure what the AI tool is generating is accurate.

“There are serious economic implications associated with the choices that we’re making, even when we do something like use AI for a traffic study instead of paying a series of people,” Blaustein said. “That’s going to look different in terms of how we’re using our budgets going forward, and I’d like us to carve out a consideration for that.”