The Adrian City Commission passed a resolution to spend about $200,000 towards an autonomous vehicle project grant at a recent meeting.
This measure, that passed by a 5-2 margin, authorized spending nearly 10 percent towards a roughly $2 million dollar grant from the federal government that encourages advancement in public transportation.
Essentially, the city would be leasing three autonomous electric buses that can carry up to twelve passengers, and setting up three separate fixed routes. This would not eliminate current public transportation systems.
Commissioners Brad Watson and Allen Heldt were the two ‘no’ votes. They expressed concerns with spending taxpayer money based on speculation. Watson and Heldt were skeptical about some information presented in the pre meeting study session, and also felt rushed into making a decision involving that much money with not that much time to review it.
The commissioners that voted ‘yes’ talked about the city continuing to be progressive with projects like this, and, although they recognized the risk involved, they saw it as a great opportunity to put Adrian in the national spotlight and possibly attract people to the area because there would be a fixed-route public transportation system.
The grant application has been completed and has been sent out for consideration. If the grant is awarded, the city can then move forward with the project.
WLEN News talked to Adrian City Economic Development Director Chris Miller about the timeline when it comes to the autonomous buses that could be coming to the city.
Miller said that the process could several months…
It is not a guarantee that the City will get the funding, but Miller, and others, seem confident that they will.
Miller talked to WLEN News after the meeting about how often the buses would be running…
WLEN News asked Miller about how you would make payments to use the service…
He then talked about if the buses will use an app to track where it is in it’s route…
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