Biden Administration Awards $49.2 Million for Innovative Technology Grants to Improve Mobility and Travel on America’s Highway and Transit Systems
Program to be Expanded by President Biden’s Bipartisan Infrastructure Law
The U.S. Department of Transportation’s Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) and Federal Transit Administration (FTA) together awarded $49.2 million in innovative technology grants to improve mobility and multimodal connections for millions of Americans who travel on our nation’s highway and transit systems. Grants can be applied to technologies ranging from systems that detect and prevent wrong-way crashes to advanced technology to improve trucking operations and terminal operator activities at a port. A full list of recipients is included below.
The FHWA awarded $45.2 million in Advanced Transportation and Congestion Management Technologies Deployment (ATCMTD) grants to 10 projects using advanced intelligent transportation systems (ITS) technologies that improve mobility and safety, reduce congestion and support underserved communities.
The FTA awarded $4 million in Enhancing Mobility Innovation (EMI) grants to nine transit agencies and organizations in six states and the District of Columbia to improve access and mobility for transit riders.
“With these grants, the Biden-Harris Administration is helping communities deliver modern transportation systems that connect people to where they want to go more affordably, efficiently, and safely,” said U.S. Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg. “We’re pleased to support these innovative solutions that will improve driving and public transit for Americans in urban, suburban, and rural areas alike.”
“ATCMTD grants promote innovations that help expand access to transportation for communities in rural areas and cities alike, improve connectivity, and prepare America’s transportation systems for the future,” said Acting Federal Highway Administrator Stephanie Pollack. “The program uses advanced technologies and innovation to promote safety for drivers and transit riders and funds projects across the nation that others can learn from as national models.”
The FHWA’s ATCMTD program funds early deployments of forward-looking technologies that can serve as national models. This year, in addition to ITS technologies to reduce congestion, the grants will fund projects supporting ports, rural transportation and ferries. ATCMTD was established under the Fixing America’s Surface Transportation (FAST) Act. Now in its sixth year, the program has provided more than $300 million to more than 55 projects.
The Bipartisan Infrastructure Law continues the ATCMTD program from 2022 through 2026 at the same level of funding with a greater focus on rural transportation, transit, paratransit and protecting the environment. It also adds several new eligible activities such as advanced transportation technologies to improve emergency evacuation and response by federal, state and local authorities, integrated corridor management systems, advanced parking reservation or variable pricing systems and technologies that enhance congestion pricing and automated vehicle communications.
“FTA’s Enhancing Mobility Innovation program provides more tools to improve mobility and make all modes of transit easier to use and more attractive to riders,” said FTA Administrator Nuria Fernandez. “This funding will help recipients test new innovations with a goal of deploying long-lasting solutions that improve the lives of people in their communities.”
The FTA’s EMI program supports innovations that improve options for how people get around and encourage people to ride transit, such as integrated fare payment systems and user-friendly apps for on-demand public transportation. By focusing on innovative service delivery approaches, creative financing, and novel partnerships, these grant awards will accelerate the industry’s progress on adapting technology to improve access and on-board experiences.
The EMI program supports the Biden-Harris Administration’s goals to increase transit access and promote environmental justice. FTA encouraged proposals that advance the objectives of the Administration’s Justice40 initiative by investing in innovations that benefit disadvantaged communities. By making transit more attractive for riders, the program also helps meet the Administration’s climate goals.
ATCMTD FY 2021 Project Selections
| State | Recipient | Project Name | Project Amount |
| Alabama | Alabama Department of Transportation | Proactive Route Operations to Avert Congestion in Traffic (PROACT) Alabama with advanced technologies to improve operations on I-65. | $5,000,000 |
| California | Port of Los Angeles | Port of Los Angeles Gateway – advanced technologies to improve trucking, drayage and terminal operator activities. | $3,000,000 |
| Illinois | City of Chicago | Chicago Centralized Transit Signal Priority Project – that prioritizes buses at traffic lights. | $3,990,000 |
| Kansas | Kansas Department of Transportation | Great Plains Rural Freight Technology Corridor Project advanced technologies — to deliver traffic, weather, and other operational information to commercial trucking to optimize freight routing. | $6,679,072 |
| Kentucky | Kentucky Transportation Cabinet | Kentucky’s Wrong Way Driving and Integrated Safety Technology – that uses ITS to detect and deter wrong-way incidents. | $5,147,300 |
| New Jersey | South Jersey Transportation Authority | Smart and Connected Atlantic City Expressway deploying cellular vehicle-to-everything (C-V2X) technologies to support future connected and automated vehicles. | $8,748,763 |
| North Dakota | North Dakota Department of Transportation | Electric Vehicle User Range Anxiety Solution for Rural North Dakota – to provide additional EV charging stations. | $1,449,000 |
| Ohio | NEORide | EZConnect – An Open and Cloud-based Mobility Center Providing One-Stop Access for Travel Needs of Underserved Customers. | $1,493,313 |
| Tennessee | City of Chattanooga | An End-to-End Decision Support System for Integrated Smart Electric Grid and Transportation System Management. | $4,577,721 |
| Washington | Washington State Department of Transportation | Washington State Ferries Terminal Wait Times Traveler Information System. | $5,122,345 |
| Total | $45,207,514 |
EMI FY 2021 Project Selections
| State | Recipient | Project Name | Project Amount |
| California | Metropolitan Transportation Commission | San Francisco Bay Area Regional Demand Responsive Transit Brokerage Service. | $500,000 |
| California | City of Richmond | Unify Richmond Moves | $250,000 |
| California | City of Santa Monica | Anonymous and Recurring Digital Intercept Survey for Big Blue Bus. | $330,432 |
| District of Columbia | Metropolitan Washington Council of Governments | Vanpool Microtransit Pilot: Creating Software to Increase Vanpooling as a Viable Public Transit Mode for Transportation Disadvantaged Populations. | $250,000 |
| Maryland | University of Maryland-College Park | Software-based solutions for smart and equitable travel demand management. | $800,000 |
| New York | Rochester Genesee Regional Transportation Authority | Verifying Low-Income Fare Eligibility via Connections to other State Databases. | $283,219 |
| Ohio | NEORide | Real-Time Open Data Exchange for Demand Response Software Using Transactional Data Standard for EZConnect Mobility Hub. | $338,600 |
| Oregon | MobilityData | Improving traveler experience through openly available high quality multimodal service information. | $798,000 |
| Texas | NTT Data Inc., | Transit Data Twin and Simulator. | $500,000 |
| Total | $4,050,251 |
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Category: Featured, General Update, Green, Management, News, Products, Safety, Tech Talk, Transit News
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