Louisville, Ky. – Building off the public input from Vision Louisville, Move Louisville and the recent $16.9 million TIGER Grant for Dixie Highway, Louisville Metro Government submitted its application to the U.S. Department of Transportation’s (DOT) Smart City Challenge.
More than 60 mid-size cities were eligible to apply to the Smart City Challenge, with the winner receiving $40 million from the U.S. DOT and $10 million from the Vulcan Foundation – a total of $50 million – to create smart transportation systems. Five finalists, to be announced in March, will each receive $100,000 to refine their proposals for the full $50 million grant to be awarded later this year.
In particular, the grant seeks to plan for the ever-increasing pace of the many technological changes in transportation. The root of Louisville’s Smart City vision and application focuses on efforts already underway, specifically enhancing transit along the Dixie Highway corridor and expanding a pilot program to increase connectivity throughout the county. The vision also focuses on upgrading Louisville’s transportation network to include smart signals, additional sensors to improve traffic conditions and data collection to help people make real-time travel decisions.
If selected as a finalist, the city will use the $100,000 to work with the public, including public meetings and public comment opportunities, and its partners, The Kentucky Transportation Cabinet, the Transportation Center at the University of Kentucky, TARC and KIPDA, to develop a proposal for the $50 million grant.
U.S. DOT’s program notice says, “The vision of the Smart City Challenge is to demonstrate and evaluate a holistic, integrated approach to improving surface transportation performance within a city and integrating this approach with other smart city domains such as public safety, public services and energy.”
Click here to view Louisville’s application.
Details of each city’s proposal will be released online by U.S. DOT sometime after all entries are submitted. More information about the Smart City Challenge is available at www.transportation.gov/smartcity.
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