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Everyone says this and sometimes even recall a romantic ride on a euro rail. Here is how to respond to common statements about rail?

Rail is super energy efficient.
It can be. Did you know that the average BART rider uses as much energy as someone driving a Prius alone?

Rail lets you carry more people.
Yes, one BART line can carry more people per hour than a single highway lane full of cars or buses. The AutoBART system is designed to carry twice as many people per hour.

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The booming self-driving industry created this opportunity.

7/30/2016

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The AutoBART has only become possible because of the recent improvements in self driving technology. Hardware costs less and the software is more capable because of investments made by major car companies.

In the last 10-15 years, self-driving technology has improved exponentially. In 2004 DARPA held its first autonomous driving competition where college teams competed in a race across the desert. In 2008, Google started their developing a self driving car. Now today, every major car company has an autonomous car program and the leading companies are logging millions of self driven miles per year.

Costs to build self driving cars are plummeting. The spinning laser used as the eyes for most autonomous cars cost $75,000 two years ago. This year it costs $500. Some companies are now building cars that use only cell phone cameras. As more money is invested and more cars are built, these costs will go down ever further.

CEO's of Ford and GM are even planning to transition their hundred year old business model from selling cars to charging per mile for transporting people because of the expected value of self driving cars.

By building a system alongside this booming market will allow AutoBART to benefit from the advances in technology and low cost mass production.

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Emily took portrait photos.

7/30/2016

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1 out of 68 pictures of me turned out ok. Emily is 1 for 1.

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BART Unions

7/25/2016

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SEIU 1021
- 2300 Clerks and Maintenance
- Part of the Service Employees International Union
- http://www.seiu1021.org/category/where-we-work/special-districts/bay-area-rapid-transit-district-bart/
- This union seems generally dissatisfied with BART. http://www.seiu1021.org/2014/01/02/seiu-1021-statement-on-board-of-directors-ratification-of-bart-workers-labor-contract/
ATU 1555
- Part of the Amalgamated Transit Union
- Jobs
  - Power & Support Controller -
  - Operations Foreworker
  - Transportation Administration Specialist
  - Station Agent
AFSCME Local 3993
- American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employeees
- http://www.afscme3993.com/
- Pay Bands http://www.afscme3993.com/index.cfm?zone=/unionactive/Contract.cfm

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BART Train CARS

7/20/2016

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"BART has a maximum standard of 107 passengers both standing and sitting in each car. "
patch.com/california/unioncity/new-bay-bridge-capacity-may-be-too-small-in-less-than-30-years-expert-says_2b9b6b9d

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Learning Interviews

7/20/2016

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Here are a few people I'd like to talk to and ask questions to learn about transit. If you are one of these people please feel free to reply in the comments.

BART Directors
Rebecca Salzman - BART Board
Nick Josefowitz - BART Board
Zakary Mallett - Current BART Director of District 7

Do you find that it's easy to change things in the BART organization?
1. Why or why not?
Do you think BART could become the worlds best transit system in 20 years?
What do you think needs to be done in the next 4 years to begin building this system?

BART Director Candidates - District 7
Lateefah Simon - Candidate for BART Director of District 7
Zakary Mallett - Current BART Director of District 7

What do you think needs to be done for BART to serve more people in 20 years?
How many more people do you think we can serve in 5 years?

Bike Advocates
Dave Cambell - Bike East Bay

Would you trust self driving cars to drive next to you if you saw them drive the same route safely 1000 times.
Why do you think public transit is currently less popular than driving a private car?

Tech Entreprenurs
Elon Musk - Founder of Tesla and Space X

If there was road between Oakland and San Francisco that only allowed self driving cars, would TESLA be interested to buy access to use it?
What protocols are important when designing a purely self driving system?

BART Engineering

Would you be excited to be trained how to build a modern self driving transit system?
Why did you choose to work for BART

Unions

AC Transit

People from these organizations
* Lyft* Uber
* AC Transit
* MUNI
* Cal Trans
* Amtrack
* Chariot
* BART Engineering

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Updates

Autonomous Driving Experts

BART Technology

Open model of the AutoBART

First icon sketch of the system design.

What's wrong with rail transit?

The booming self-driving industry created this opportunity.

Emily took portrait photos.

BART Unions

BART Train CARS

Learning Interviews

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