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Crosscurrents

Six futuristic Bay Area transportation projects to get the green light

By Eli Wirtschafter
Published February 27, 2018 at 5:02 PM PST
Eli Wirtschafter
A driverless shuttle like this one in San Ramon could pick up riders from the Dublin BART station

What if a bicyclist could turn a traffic light from red to green — just by having the right app in their pocket? Or what if a driverless car could take you to the hospital?

Those ideas could become a reality soon in the Bay Area. The Metropolitan Transportation Commission is expected to spend $5 million on futuristic transportation tech: driverless shuttles and connected vehicles. The commission votes on the money tomorrow. KALW’s transportation reporter Eli Wirtschafter unpacked the plan with Crosscurrents host Hana Baba.

Click the audio player above to listen to the full story

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Crosscurrents Transportation
Eli Wirtschafter
Eli is a key member of KALW’s senior leadership team, managing our day-to-day operations so that KALW can deliver high-quality journalism, storytelling, and public service at scale. Eli is a proud graduate of Berkeley High School, UC Berkeley, and most importantly, KALW’s Audio Academy. He served as the director of our Uncuffed prison radio training program from 2019 to 2025, overseeing the launch of the Uncuffed podcast, the Uncuffed Playlist DJ program, our expansion to the California Institution for Women, and our investment in formerly incarcerated leadership.
See stories by Eli Wirtschafter