New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy and the New Jersey Department of Transportation (NJDOT) announced a Request for Expression of Interest (RFEI) for the Trenton Mobility & Opportunity: Vehicles Equity System (MOVES) Project – an on-demand automated transit system to serve the 90,000 residents of Trenton.
Trenton MOVES will deploy 100 autonomous vehicles throughout the state’s capital to provide safe, equitable, affordable, and sustainable high-quality mobility in the city.
“Since taking office, we have worked relentlessly towards making New Jersey the innovation center of America,” said Governor Murphy. “There is perhaps no initiative that embodies this goal more than the Trenton MOVES project, which will attract tech talent from around the country and the world with the mission of creating an autonomous vehicle-based transit system in our Capitol that will provide a new, affordable transportation solution for underserved areas of Trenton. This is an exciting project with immense potential, and I look forward to the day that the first vehicle hits the road.”
The project, the first large-scale urban transit system in America to be based entirely on self-driving shuttles, is being developed by the Governor’s Office, NJDOT, the City of Trenton, and Princeton University.
Each vehicle in the project will carry four to eight passengers at a time. Low cost to users in underserved neighborhoods, the system will allow Trenton’s households to get acclimated to the presence of AVs on the streets of the state capital. Seventy percent of Trenton’s households have limited access to a single automobile or no access at all.
“Mobility is about equity and access to opportunity,” said NJDOT Commissioner Diane Gutierrez-Scaccetti. “Trenton MOVES represents an opportunity to utilize innovation to sustainably improve the quality of life of the mobility-constrained in many of our cities. By starting in Trenton, we will have the opportunity to work with a close and effective partner; ultimately, our vision is that this effort will ideally scale throughout the state and the region”.
The RFEI will help NJDOT gather information from firms in designing, building, and operating a safe and equitable automated vehicle transportation system. The deadline for responding to the RFEI is Feb. 11, 2022.