WASHINGTON, Oct. 13 (UPI) — The U.S. Department of Transportation has awarded $65 million in grants to several cities nationwide, including Dallas, Los Angeles and Pittsburgh, to advance transportation technologies.
“From automated vehicles to connected infrastructure to data analytics, technology is transforming how we move around our country, and some of the most exciting innovation is happening at the local level,” U.S. Transportation Secretary Anthony Foxx said in a statement.
“These grants will enable cities and rural communities to harness new technologies to tackle hard problems like reducing congestion, connecting people to mass transit, and enhancing safety.”
About $56 million will be granted through the Transportation Department’s Advanced Transportation and Congestion Management Technologies Deployment program, or ATCMTD, which is designed to increase the efficiency of local highways to combat the effects of increased traffic amid a growing population.
Through the ATCMTD program, Pittsburgh, Pa., will receive nearly $11 million to develop its Smart City Challenge application, which would deploy smart traffic signal technology that has “proven to reduce congestion at street lights by up to forty percent.” Denver, Co., will receive about $6 million from the ATCMTD program to increase the efficiency of freight travel.
Through the Transportation Department’s Mobility on Demand Sandbox program, Dallas, Texas, will receive $1.2 million to integrate ride-sharing services such as Uber and Lyft into the city’s GoPass public transportation ticketing app.
Los Angeles, Calif., will receive $3 million to implement connected vehicle technologies to allow traffic signal system to detect vehicles that run through red lights, which will allow to “adjust timing, and personal wireless devices to prioritize pedestrian travel and safety at intersections.”
