Research project embeds autonomous mobility and energy justice into public transit services 

Jinhua Zhao, Professor of Cities and Transportation, and Gioele Zardini, Rudge (1948) and Nancy Allen Career Development Assistant Professor of Civil and Environmental Engineering, have been awarded a grant from the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) to design, deploy and evaluate an integrated autonomous vehicles and public transportation system in Chicago. The $3.1M three-year cooperative agreement, funded by the Vehicle Technologies Office under the Energy Efficient Mobility Systems (EEMS) program, aims to improve bus transit mobility, reduce emissions and provide equitable accessibility for low-income workers, patients and visitors in the Illinois Medical District. 

The grant will fund research and development of a Multi-level Connected and Automated Transit System (M-CATS) that uses connectivity and automation technologies to provide more adaptive and equitable mobility services.  The technology will be piloted in the Illinois Medical District (IMD) bus transit along Ashland Avenue in Chicago in a dense urban traffic environment. The technology advancements seek to offer riders a more efficient and accessible public transit experience. Instead of operating independently as many current transit systems do, the technology advancements will operate as a single system.

“Despite the billions of dollars of investment in autonomous vehicles (AV), the AV industry has yet to show its full positive impacts on society,” says Zhao, the principal investigator leading the project. “We will deploy and evaluate an integrated AV-Public Transit system in Chicago, specifically the Illinois Medical District, to enhance equitable accessibility for low-income workers, patients and visitors. This project offers an opportunity for the AV industry to demonstrate its positive impacts and the transit industry to embrace modernity.”  

M-CATS aims to revolutionize bus transit service delivery by combining fixed-route and schedule-based transit operations with adaptive mobility services. M-CATS consists of service design, operation control, and demand analysis modules, which will jointly facilitate the schedule-free operations and flexible-route services using real-time demand information. Through a three-phase pilot consisting of pilot preparation, control pilot, and automation pilot, the M-CATS pilot seeks to improve transit ridership by ≥5%, reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 8%, and increase accessibility for low-income riders. 

Zardini says he sees M-CATS as a potential game changer for autonomous mobility-on-demand transportation. 

“Our hope is that M-CATS will demonstrate how real-time demand sensing and prediction, combined with schedule-free operations and autonomous mobility-on-demand, can transform transit systems to be more responsive, efficient, and equitable, offering a blueprint for future urban mobility,” says Zardini. 

Other MIT researchers contributing to the project include research scientists Anson Stewart and James Aloisi.

The project is expected to draw on the efforts of collaborators at other academic institutions, a national laboratory, as well as community partners to test and analyze the projects impacts in the Chicago area.

This material is based upon the work supported by the U.S. Department of Energy’s Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy (EERE) under the Vehicle Technologies Office Award Number DE-EE0011186. The views expressed herein do not necessarily represent the views of the U.S. Department of Energy or the United States Government.

(Photo credit: Illinois Medical District Commission)