Dr. Benjamin M. Brunjes, Min Guo, Eugene Paul | June, 2018
Frameworks for Managing Innovations in Transportation Policy
In 2015, the United States Department of Transportation (USDOT) launched the Smart City Challenge. The federal government asked cities to develop proposals for integrated, smart transportation systems that incorporated data and technology to reduce transportation costs, improve system-wide efficiency, enhance sustainability, and leverage transportation systems as drivers of economic growth. At stake was a one-time grant of $50 million to support innovation efforts. Seattle, along with 77 other American cities, responded. In June 2016, USDOT announced that Columbus, Ohio was the winner. Despite its limited disbursement of funds, the competition has spurred lasting discussion and policy changes across the United States. To this point, there has been little research on the different approaches to municipal transportation innovation. In Seattle, a city at the forefront of technological innovation and sustainability, decision-makers want to identify successful models of innovation and lessons learned as the city embarks on its own efforts to transform local transportation policies and infrastructure.