Roosevelt Access Loop

An Elderly-First Autonomous Mobility Corridor on Roosevelt Island

Summary

The Main Street corridor on Roosevelt Island provides the only north-south roadway through which residents can move throughout their lives. Yet, for many of the island’s elderly and mobility impaired residents, the distance (2.1 kilometers) from the Tram Plaza to the Octagon represents a significant obstacle in accessing their community, especially during inclement weather or at nighttime. Additionally, access to key community resources such as pharmacies, clinics, and the tram station located near residential buildings creates barriers to accessing these services. This Case Study will present the concept of a system called the “Roosevelt Access Loop”, consisting of eight Level 4 Autonomous Electric Shuttle Pods operating within the confines of this defined Main Street Corridor; along with a newly designed street environment that promotes slow traffic speeds, safe and easy access to boarding areas and pedestrians. Unlike most transportation systems that are designed to maximize the number of passengers moved per hour, the proposed loop is based on one fundamental premise – providing aging residents with the same ease of movement as they experience when traveling inside a building via an elevator – seamless, silent and always available.

AV Use Case

What AVs are involved?

A fleet of 8 Level 4 electric shuttles will be deployed to provide transportation along the Roosevelt Access Loop. These shuttles have a capacity of 4 passengers with 2 designated wheelchair spaces and a completely flat, ramped floor allowing users to enter without having to climb stairs. The vehicles are restricted to the Main Street Corridor and can travel at a maximum speed of 15km/h. As such, the vehicles are capable of moving in the same manner as pedestrians along Main Street. The shuttles will be equipped with LiDAR sensors and cameras, as well as V2X communication systems to coordinate with traffic signals at intersections. The vehicles do not have a onboard safety driver and instead will be remotely monitored from a centrally located operations center. The number of shuttles was determined based on providing four minute headway’s along the 2.1 kilometer long route during peak times, which occurs when there are two minutes of dwell time at each stop cycle.

What are they doing?

The AV’s will run in a continuous loop along Main Street, from Tram Plaza at the south end to the Octagon at the north end, stopping at one of eight predetermined stops. The stops include: Tram Plaza, Rivercross, Westview, Good Shepherd Services, Island House, Cornell Tech North Gate, Motorgate, and the Octagon. The AV’s will follow Main Street’s current configuration of shared vehicle travel lanes and stop at pre-designated curb-side boarding stations. All other vehicular traffic including private cars, NYPD, and delivery/ service vehicles will also continue to travel in the normal fashion along Main Street. Operation of the AV’s will take place in the early morning hours from 6AM to Midnight and will operate during all seven days of the week. During the morning peak window (7AM – 9AM), and afternoon peak window (5PM – 7PM), the AV’s will operate in four minute intervals, and in eight minute intervals outside these windows. To use the service there is no requirement to reserve a spot; riders simply present themselves to the boarding area where their fare will be deducted using OMNY cards. Once riders exit the vehicle, another rider may immediately access the vehicle. Payment for fares will be made in accordance with New York City Transit regulations.

Why here?

The Main Street corridor from Tram Plaza to the Octagon represents a primary residential mobility artery for residents of Roosevelt Island. The corridor connects three large elderly housing developments — Rivercross, Westview, and Island House — to the tram station, medical services and grocery stores. While Roosevelt Island is small enough to walk around easily, the distance from the Octagon to Tram Plaza is sufficient to exceed twenty minutes on foot — particularly under cold weather conditions — and thus serves as a serious obstacle for many seniors with limited mobility. A public transit bus service currently operates throughout the island (the Red Bus), although it runs infrequently, has no accessible entry features and travels at speeds consistent with standard buses. Therefore, the Main Street corridor provides an ideal combination of low traffic volume, lack of heavy truck usage, and minimal grade changes — representing an exceptionally suitable environment for low-speed autonomous vehicles to operate.

Stakeholders

Who participates?

RIOC (Roosevelt Island Operating Corp.) is the project sponsor and owns all of the infrastructure related to this project which includes main street. As such, they have the authority to make changes to main street without having to go through the City of New York Department of Transportation for street permits. May Mobility has experience implementing accessible level four autonomous vehicles in areas where pedestrians and cars share space. They will be responsible for maintaining and supplying the autonomous vehicle fleet as well as the remote operation infrastructure. Cornell Tech will provide a research component and place graduate students in the remote operations center. In addition, they will use the corridor as a test bed for studying pedestrian interactions with autonomous vehicles. The MTA will enable OMNY fare payments so riders may travel seamlessly throughout the tram, subways and shuttle. Finally, NYC DOT will issue any necessary permits and ensure that the new configuration meets all city standards.

Who is impacted?

Residents who live in Rivercross, Westview, or Island House who are elderly or mobility impaired (approximately 2400 residents located near the north end of Main Street), are the primary beneficiaries. They would have had to walk the farthest distance to the tram station and other necessities. With wheelchair accessibility being one of the requirements, these residents will now have access to zero barrier transportation to and from destinations. This service will also help reduce some of the frustrations associated with transfers to and from the tram when trying to get to work. Additionally, Cornell Tech employees and students will have a convenient way to travel back and forth to school from the tram. Three full time Red Bus operators may lose jobs due to the new autonomous vehicle loop (Access Loop) replacing part of the existing Red Bus route. A clear transition plan needs to be created for these employees.

How does the solution use their capabilities?

As the owner of all roads on Roosevelt Island, RIOC is able to create its own Boarding Node Construction and Curbside Modification plans without going through the full NYC DOT Capital Project Pipeline process. This reduces lead time. Cornell Tech’s proximity and research mission create a natural fit for the remote monitoring operation. It allows them to train personnel and produce published research regarding how autonomous vehicles interact with pedestrians in a high density residential setting. May Mobility’s experience operating in similar locations (Ann Arbor, MI and Grand Rapids, MI) creates established fleet management systems and maintenance procedures for the deployment. The MTA’s OMNY infrastructure removes the need for a separate fare collection system, which increases ease-of-use for passengers and decreases costs of operation.

How does it address their concerns?

RIOC and Cornell Tech were concerned with pedestrian/cyclist safety, particularly when considering how fast an autonomous vehicle could operate in a densely populated area. To mitigate this concern, speed limits will be programmed into the vehicle’s firmware at 15 km/h throughout the corridor, with an additional 10 km/h limit geofenced within 20 meters of each boarding node. In addition, bollards and blue tinted pavement will be used to visually separate each boarding node from moving traffic. Accessibility was designed into every aspect of the Autonomous Vehicle Shuttle system - including each pod and boarding node - as a requirement rather than an afterthought. Each pod and node will meet flush-level, ramped, tactile guided standards. RIOC will fund a retraining program for displaced Red Bus operators in anticipation of transitioning them into Remote Monitoring Operator positions at the Cornell Tech Operations Center, Fleet Maintenance Technician positions at May Mobility, and Priority Hires for New RIOC Facilities Roles; RIOC will negotiate this program as a condition of contract award.

Relevant Blueprints for Autonomous Urbanism

The following urban design strategies are drawn from the NACTO Blueprint for Autonomous Urbanism, 2nd Edition.

Blueprint 1 — Slow Zone and Mixed Traffic Design

Designate corridors for slow travel speeds for all types of vehicles, including those using autonomous technology. The NACTO Blue Print for Autonomous Urbanism defines a Slow Zone as a corridor where all vehicles operate at reduced speeds. Pedestrians have priority within this environment but do not require a fully closed roadway or converted lanes. The proposed intervention will allow the continued use of private vehicles, the NYPD, and other service vehicles along side the Access Loop pods. The proposed intervention does not alter the current configuration of the two-lane roadway. Rather it proposes a 15 km/h advisory speed zone throughout the entire length of the corridor. Gateway pavement treatments are located at both the Tram Plaza and Octagon entrances and include textured asphalt bands and “slow zone” ground marking. These gateway treatments serve to inform all users of the reduction in driving speed expectations. At each of the eight access nodes there will be a raised speed table that spans the full width of the roadway. This physical barrier will reduce the speed limit to 10 km/h for all vehicles traveling through the loading areas. Maintaining the roadway open to all users, while establishing a predictable low-speed environment, in which the Access Loop pods can operate safely, is an essential element of this plan. Similar designs were used by May Mobility to deploy level 4 shuttles in mixed traffic environments in Ann Arbor and Grand Rapids. Existing lanes were used at low speeds, without converting roads — thereby establishing operational precedent versus speculation.

Blueprint 2 — Dedicated AV Pickup and Drop-off Zones

The NACTO Blueprints calls for creating clearly designated and physically separated areas to load AVs so that there are no conflict issues related to passengers boarding the AVs, traffic in motion or pedestrians walking through. The Access Loop has 8 stops along the way each stop will have a standard boarding node with these components: a 2x8m level platform at pod floor height (320mm above grade) which eliminates the step from a typical bus boarding; a half enclosed shelter made of powder coated steel & translucent polycarbonate; blue tinted permeable concrete pavers extend 1.5m into the sidewalk area as a physical transition marker; recessed LED edge lighting for night time visibility; an audio announcement column with live arrival times, emergency call and multiple language capabilities; and low bollards to prevent private vehicle encroachment.

Methods

Step 1 — Aerial Concept Visualization (Midjourney v6)

Tool: Midjourney v6

Transformation: Developed aerial concepts visualizing the main street corridor redesign by utilizing the following prompt: “aerial view of a narrow urban street corridor on a small island, low speed electric autonomous shuttle pods, wider pedestrian promenade, blue gray permeable pavement lanes, transparent roofed boarding shelters, elderly riders, people with wheelchairs, tree lined sidewalks, Roosevelt Island, New York, soft morning light, urban planning visualization, photorealism — ar 16:9 — v 6.” The prompt was iteratively changed four times to expand the ratio of pedestrians to cars, enhance the presence of seasonally changing tree canopies, and transition the time of day from daylight to early morning to create a calm environment that is human scaled and not technological utopian.

Result: Created a high resolution aerial concept image illustrating the study corridor characteristics including boarding stations, tree buffers, and pedestrian activity occurring at street level. This was utilized as the hero image illustrating the study corridor for this report.

Step 2 — Site Composite (Google Earth Studio + Adobe Photoshop)

Tool: Google Earth Studio + Adobe Photoshop

Transformation: Downloaded a nadir-view frame of the Main Street corridor between Westview and Island House from Google Earth Studio. The frame captured the current road layout and building footprint at a 1:1000 scale. Overlayed the rendered shuttle pod images created by Midjourney onto the true aerial base; the shuttle pod images were layered above the true aerial base so as to preserve existing building roof lines and street trees. The road surface and boarding station structures were added to the overlay. Utilized layer masking to maintain both components visually distinct from one another. Graded all colors within the composite to be consistent in terms of their color temperature and thus ensure that both the AI generated components and satellite imagery appear realistic together.

Results: A realistic composite linking the theoretical design element to the true Roosevelt Island location, which was used to illustrate the study corridor plan. Also submitted as corridor-plan.png.

Step 3 — Boarding Sequence Animation (Runway Gen-3 Alpha)

Tool: Runway Gen-3 Alpha

Transformation: Provided Runway the street level boarding node image developed during step 1 as the first frame and instructed it to generate an animation of: “camera holds steady, autonomous shuttle pod travels slowly into boarding area from the left side, doors swing open, elderly women with rolling walkers step into flat platform from pod, pod remains stationary, doors shut, pod departs quietly into the right side, pedestrians continue walking in background.”” Developed six 4 second clips based upon this instruction and chose three clips that illustrated continuous narrative. Chained these three clips into a single 12 second sequence with matching start/end frames.

Results: An animation lasting twelve seconds illustrating the entire process of an elderly person accessing a Main Street node via the Access Loop pod. Demonstrates how zero friction and zero step are achieved when interacting with an elderly rider and the Autonomous Shuttle Pod.