San Francisco lands federal advanced transportation tech grant

San Francisco Mayor Edwin M. Lee joined Secretary of Transportation Anthony Foxx of the U.S. Department of Transportation (U.S. DOT) to announce $11 million in federal funding for six innovative projects in San Francisco aimed at reducing traffic congestion and creating a safer and more efficient transportation system.

“Technology is transforming the way we move around our country and the most exciting innovation is happening at the local level,” said Foxx. “This grant will help San Francisco pioneer the transportation systems of the future — smart, connected, efficient and shared — and share those innovations with the rest of the country.”

San Francisco's projects funded by this grant build on the partnerships and ideas developed for U.S. DOT’s original Smart City Challenge, and the goals remain the same: To harness emerging technological innovations to make transportation smarter and more equitable.

The six transportation initiatives funded by the grant will be implemented and operated by the San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency (SFMTA) in a private-public partnership with the San Francisco County Transportation Authority (SFCTA), and with support from researchers at the University of California, Berkeley, in collaboration with San Francisco’s newly-created smart city incubator, Superpublic.

The six funded pilot programs will create: new connected high-occupancy vehicle lanes for public transit and carpools; dedicated curb space for pick-up and drop-off by carpools; smart traffic signals to reduce congestion and improve safety; connected Vision Zero safety corridors to improve safety for pedestrians and bicyclists; a connected, electronic toll system for the congestion pricing program at Treasure Island; and the deployment and testing of electronic, autonomous shuttles serving intra-island trips on Treasure Island.

“San Francisco has led the way with far reaching policy initiatives like our landmark Transit First Policy, our aggressive Climate Action Plan, and unique equity efforts like the Muni Service Equity Strategy,” said Ed Reiskin, SFMTA Director of Transportation. “These exciting pilot programs will further our work to ease congestion, fight climate change, improve public transit and achieve our Vision Zero goal to end traffic fatalities across San Francisco.”

The award comes from the U.S. DOT’s Advanced Transportation and Congestion Management Technologies Deployment program, a competitive grant program for the development, large-scale installation and operation of advanced transportation technologies to improve transportation safety, efficiency, system performance, and infrastructure return on investment.