Nashville Joins Nationwide Discussion To Unsnarl Traffic Jams

NASHVILLE, TN — Traffic congestion on streets and roads is a constantly growing problem in urban areas these days. In a search for answers, leaders from Nashville's business and civic communities will join their counterparts from 15 other cities across the country in a one-year program to brainstorm solutions.

The program, hosted by Transportation for America (T4America), will bring urban leaders together "to create policies, pilot emerging technology and share insights to improve transportation in cities small and large," according to a T4America statement.

On the agenda will be automated cars, data analytics and other next-generation technologies to address today's traffic jams.

Nearly 60 cities applied to participate in the initiative, which will hold its first meeting in Minneapolis on Nov. 9-10, T4America said.

“We’re in the midst of the most transformational shift in urban transportation since the start of the interstate era more than 50 years ago," said James Corless, director of T4America, in the statement. "And just like that era, cities have enormous potential to help or harm their residents with the decisions they make.”

Besides Nashville, the other cities in the initiative include Chattanooga, Tenn.; Austin, Texas; Boston, Mass.; Miami-Dade County, Fla.; Madison, Wis.; Minneapolis/St. Paul, Minn.; Portland, Ore.; Seattle, Wash.; and Washington, D.C.

The rest include three cities in California - Los Angeles, Sacramento and San Jose; and three in Colorado - Denver, Centennial and Lone Tree.

Leaders from these cities will meet with transportation experts and work with Sidewalk Labs, a partnership between Alphabet, the parent firm of Google, and Daniel Doctoroff, a former deputy mayor of New York and the CEO of Bloomberg LP.

Sidewalk Labs is a cutting-edge company "that works with cities to develop technology that solves big urban problems across transportation, housing, energy, and data-driven management," T4America said.

The member cities will form working groups that will focus on three core areas:

• Automated vehicles, and their potential impact on urban transit systems, congestion and the environment.
• Shared mobility, and how it could help cities provide equitable, affordable and more sustainable transportation choices.
• Performance measures and data analytics, and how to use data to manage complex transportation networks.

The cities will participate in a variety of information-sharing meetings. From there, the working groups will receive direct technical assistance, create pilot programs, and share the results, T4America said.

T4America is a program of Smart Growth America, a Washington, D.C. think tank that specializes in urban land use and related issues. For more information on T4America, click here.