The U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT) has selected five metropolitan areas to participate in a new federal initiative to fight traffic gridlock following an eight-month nationwide competition.

Twenty-six cities applied for five openings to join the Department’s Urban Partnership program, aimed to reduce traffic congestion using approaches like congestion pricing, transit, tolling and telecommuting. The selected communities will receive the following funding amounts to implement their traffic fighting plans:

• Miami, $62.9 million;

• the Minneapolis area, $133.3 million;

• New York City, $354.5 million;

• San Francisco, $158.7 million;

• the Seattle area (King County), $138.7 million.

Each of the selected cities proposed some form of congestion pricing, DOT reports. The proposed plans also include improved and expanded bus and ferry service, new technologies to keep traffic moving, and flexible work schedules and telecommuting to ease traditional rush hours.

The Urban Partnership Program is part of the Bush Administration’s comprehensive initiative, launched in May 2006, to confront and address congestion throughout the nation’s transportation system.