Whittier City Hall. (Photo by Christina Merino, Whittier Daily News/SCNG)
Whittier City Council and staff are working toward implementing a shuttle system with a small-scale circular transit route for popular destinations in the city.
During a recent City Council meeting, a study was presented that gave community’s thoughts, along with viable options for the shuttle system – dubbed “Whittier People Mover.”
The City Council did not take a vote to further the project but gave direction to staff on what additional information would be needed to do so.
The council’s initial vision for a prospective “People Mover” in 2019 was an autonomous shuttle with a circular transit route that would connect the new Groves development with Whittier points of interest, such as Uptown, PIH Health Hospital, Whittier College, Hellman Park Trailhead, and commercial areas including The Quad.
Brookfield Development – which built the multi-use development of The Groves – provided $100,000 to help fund the study of the automated people mover that would connect these new residential and commercial areas to the rest of the city, according to the meeting agenda. In 2021, the city hired IBI Group of Irvine to study the idea and come back with a plan.
A community survey was conducted to identify mobility needs, typical routes people take to their destinations, barriers to travel and non-automotive forms of transportation, and opportunities to improve travel in the study area, as well as additional outreach through virtual public meetings.
“Folk in their responses, both in meetings and in the survey, didn’t intend to take the people mover for commuting to work or to school,” said Shannon DeLong, assistant city manager, as she presented the study to the council. “They were really envisioning this as a neat amenity for the community that they can take to the library, to a coffee shop, they could kind of run errands and it wouldn’t be necessarily an essential everyday travel.”
In November 2022, a public outreach meeting was conducted at The Groves for additional input from the community on the project. There was stronger interest from the community for the “People Mover,” said DeLong.
The study also involved stakeholder meetings, as well as meetings with the Parking & Transportation Commission and the Parks, Recreation & Community Services Commission.
City staff and consultants took a look at the technology, trends, what was happening in the industry of autonomous vehicles, and which of those were being permitted on the streets. They looked into alternatives if the initial vision of an autonomous shuttle would not be possible.
The “People Mover” initial study showed the capabilities of a range of autonomous and human-operated vehicles offered by industry providers.
Specific technological challenges for automated vehicles included the speed of travel limitations and degree of interaction with bicycles and pedestrians. Multi-passenger driverless vehicles in California operate below 2–25 mph speeds on predetermined routes, which makes crossing or navigating on Whittier Boulevard a challenge, according to the study information on the agenda.
While the study was initiated to determine whether an automated transit service could be commissioned to connect the residential and commercial areas, the analysis of the state of technology showed that implementation is not feasible at the moment.
Council members were presented with three options that staff could explore and look further into as an option to implement the shuttle system.
The first option was to direct staff to monitor automated vehicle implementation in California and report back periodically, every two to three years as technology advances.
If the city were to pursue an automated people mover concept, it would be important to properly set expectations about what the service can do, what it cannot do, and what happens in response to a maintenance issue, crash, or other unexpected events, according to the study results. Two private autonomous ride-hailing services are available for pilot testing – Cruise and Waymo.
The second option would be to consider directing a study of an on-demand micro-transit vehicle system, allowing hailing from any location within a predefined radius, like FRAN (free rides around the neighborhood) that has been implemented in Anaheim.
An initial estimate of an on-demand service would cost $300,000 for a six-month trial of service operation. This option could potentially be funded through accumulated Prop A or C funds, but it would be necessary to study and finalize a route and schedule prior to obtaining pre-approval for the use of such funding from Metro.
The last option would be to consider whether a weekend shuttle to Hellman Park from the Comstock Avenue Parking Structure would be helpful to test the need for service while also alleviating the parking lot queuing issues in the neighborhood.
“These three alternatives that are already been evaluated by your consultant,” DeLong said, “there are pluses and minuses in terms of whether or not they operate on demand or need to be on a fixed route with a timing schedule, whether or not they can access Whittier Boulevard, how much it costs to maintain them, and how reliable they might be.”
The recommendations given to the council by DeLong were to direct city staff to continue monitoring and reporting back on the automated shuttles and look into the larger vehicles to what would work to traverse Whittier Boulevard.
Another was to consider the micro-transit option, as well as looking into a fixed-route shuttle to serve Hellman Park. Finally, to pursue a pilot of the private autonomous ride-hailing services that are approved by the California Public Utilities Commission and the Department of Motor Vehicles that are available.
Some of the initial questions that the council had were how much would it cost to implement a micro-transit system, what some suggested operating hours would be, and if the city could implement a micro-transit system and later switch to autonomous when the opportunity arises.
“I would also like us to think about equity for the full city,” Councilmember Cathy Warner said about the area in which the shuttle system would serve.
“I am interested in a fixed, in fixed timing, adding East Whittier, and having a driver in the vehicle,” Warner said during council comment. “I would want to have additional information in regard to handicap access.”
Mayor Joe Vinatieri said that the shuttle system is long-term planning for the city.
“I would like us to look at those different items and see what makes sense for us,” he said. “I do think that we ought to be doing something on Hellman Park right now and whether that’s providing something on Saturday and Sunday – in a way of using that as an initial study or just getting it done because there is no parking up there.”
“I think it’s up to staff to look at the alternatives and then come back to us with best practices and then we’ll do one step at a time,” he added.
The Council decided at the Wednesday, June 13, meeting that city staff should further investigating the micro-transit driver shuttle and large-scale driver shuttle based upon all the issues raised by the council members, as well as a transit option between somewhere in Uptown and Hellman Park to be implemented soon.
