AUSTIN, Texas – Federal officials say Ohio’s capital is a finalist in a national competition to find a city to fully integrate innovative technologies such as self-driving cars, connected vehicles and smart sensors into its transportation network.
The U.S. Department of Transportation recently named Columbus one of seven finalists in the department’s “Smart Cities Challenge.” The agency expects to provide up to $40 million to the winner to help that city define what it means to be a “Smart City’ and help transform the future of urban transportation.
With input from Battelle, Clean Fuels Ohio, the IBM Analytics Data Center and OSU, the city’s proposal included formation of a Smart City Program Office, made up of the city, COTA, Mid-Ohio Regional Planning Commission, Ohio Department of Transportation, OSU and businesses, which would try to improve access to jobs through a pilot “autonomous vehicle” deployment from the Easton Transit Center to area employers.
The proposal includes routing real time traffic conditions in a smartphone app for trucks to help with the movement of freight at the Rickenbacker Inland Port and an app with Experience Columbus that can be customized to specific events to provide real-time information related to traffic, parking, and transit options to visitors.
To address “mobility challenged” neighborhoods, the city is proposing to increase personal transit service like Uber and Car2Go in the Linden neighborhood.
The proposal also calls for expansion of the city’s electric vehicle charging infrastructure, continue the conversion of the Columbus city fleet to compressed natural gas and look into converting more of the city fleet to electric vehicles.
The winner will be selected in June to receive up to $40 million in federal funds to implement data-driven ideas that make transportation safer, easier and more reliable.
The other finalists are San Francisco; Pittsburgh; Denver; Portland, Oregon; Austin, Texas; and Kansas City, Missouri.