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UC Berkeley to work with San Francisco on traffic solutions

Xinhua, October 15, 2016 Adjust font size:

The City of San Francisco and the University of California, Berkeley, have been awarded 11 million U.S. dollars to fund six innovative projects aimed at reducing traffic congestion and creating a safer and more efficient transportation system.

The award from the U.S. Department of Transportation was announced by Transportation Secretary Anthony Foxx on Thursday at the White House Frontiers Conference hosted by President Barack Obama to explore the future of innovation.

"With this funding," said San Francisco Mayor Ed Lee in response to the grant, "San Francisco can move forward with a number of pioneering projects across the city that will utilize advanced transportation technology to address traffic congestion on our streets and allow for a smarter and more equitable transportation system for all San Franciscans."

The initiatives funded by the grant will be implemented and operated by the Municipal Transportation Agency together with the San Francisco County Transportation Authority and UC Berkeley with the support of a newly created smart city incubator, called Superpublic.

The programs will create new connected high-occupancy vehicle (HOV) lanes for public transit and carpools; dedicated curb space for pick-up and drop-off by carpools and ridesharing services; smart traffic signals to reduce congestion and improve safety; a connected, electronic toll system for the congestion pricing program at Treasure Island; and deployment and testing of electronic, autonomous shuttles serving intra-island trips on Treasure Island, which is located half way on the city's famous Bay Bridge.

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

"We are delighted to be partners with the city of San Francisco, the Metropolitan Transportation Agency and the County Transportation Authority on this exciting grant, which will enable us to build upon the foundation we created in responding to the Department of Transportation's Smart City Challenge earlier this year," said Susan Shaheen, who will lead UC Berkeley's research contributions to the projects. "Our approach is focused on improving mobility for all travelers, increasing safety and reducing congestion in the city and region."

Shaheen, a pioneer in shared mobility, is co-director of the Transportation Sustainability Research Center in the Institute of Transportation Studies and an adjunct professor of civil and environmental engineering. She noted that private sector partners have provided over 103 million dollars in matching funds for the programs. Endit