Trolleys, Taxis And Autonomous Vehicles Discussed At City Council Meeting

Transportation discussions on the Tuesday, Nov. 1 assembly ran the gamut from trolleys to taxi cabs to self-driving automobiles.

One merchandise on the agenda was to boost taxi cab fares, that are set by the town and had not been raised since 2008.  One of many large complaints from the taxi cab trade is that all the pieces about taxis besides the colour of the motive force’s hat is regulated, and in right this moment’s world they’re competing towards Uber, Lyft and different transportation companies which can be hardly regulated in any respect.

It’s no surprise that Uber and Lyft are placing common taxi firms out of enterprise everywhere in the world.  The Metropolis of Greensboro not solely units the fares for taxis, it additionally limits the variety of taxis that may function within the metropolis.

As we speak taxis not solely should compete with Uber- and Lyft-type companies but in addition with electrical scooters and bikes.

Councilmember Zack Matheny introduced the Metropolis Council again to the twenty first century with a dialogue of the self-driving or autonomous automobiles that North Carolina A&T State College is growing.

Matheny mentioned that he and Mayor Nancy Vaughan and Councilmember Goldie Wells, “Attended an amazing announcement regarding A&T State College’s autonomous automobiles.  As a part of my day job with Downtown Greensboro we truly sponsored two of these automobiles buying them for A&T State College to the tune of $50,000.  To see them and never solely see them however trip in them, the know-how was truly phenomenal.

He mentioned, “Apparently as we proceed to maneuver ahead you’ll be able to see them on the road in February or March.”

Matheny added that when speaking to individuals about plans for the downtown, “We hear trolleys, trolleys, trolleys, however what we wish to do in downtown is basically transcend trolleys and take into consideration what’s the future, and what higher strategy to associate with the way forward for what’s mobility than to make use of the intelligence of the scholars at A&T State College.”

A&T has been testing the autonomous automobiles on a check monitor and plans to have self-driving shuttles working on campus subsequent spring.

The plan requires the self-driving shuttles to not solely function on the A&T campus but in addition have a shuttle route from the A&T campus to downtown Greensboro.