ReflectionsontheconclusionofUSDOTgrant-fundedtechnologydemonstrations

When I joined the team to manage the delivery of the $50 million in Smart City Challenge grants, “intelligent transportation” was dominating industry conversation. Connected, autonomous, shared and electric technologies grabbed headlines, but cities grappled with how to adopt them within legacy infrastructures. Mayor Andrew Ginther’s vision to harness these technologies to make our community more equitable and accessible made Columbus stand out in the Challenge and the industry, and gave our team its guiding principle: mobility is the great equalizer of the 21st century. 
 
This mission resonated with me as I thought back to my own mother, and how hard she worked to ensure she had a reliable car. Without it, she couldn’t work, access healthcare, get kids to school or childcare, or do the things she needed to do to live her life. Without access to modern, integrated transportation options, residents in central Ohio cannot live their best lives.
 
As we conclude the live project demonstrations, there are early anecdotes that we’ve started to help Columbus residents do just that. Here are some of the stories that we’re beginning to synthesize:

• Linden resident Ms. Peg shared with us that she gained some independence since the Linden LEAP began transporting food boxes in July. The LEAP, which was redeployed during the pandemic to deliver food pantry boxes from St. Stephen’s Community Center, delivered almost 130,000 meals. 
• Morgan, a mom to four kiddos who and an essential worker, started using the Pivot app to get to work using COTA. She tells other bus riders about the real-time bus information the app offers her. She even used Pivot to book a taxi for her daughter when an extracurricular activity ended early and she needed a ride.  

• Jose had high praise for the Wayfinder app, which we customized to offer mobility independence to those with cognitive impairments. Using the app enabled him to visit the North Market and enjoy all of its smells and tastes.

As we review the preliminary data from these projects, I can see that they helped to impact urban mobility in our community, and that there’s room to build upon our early learnings to continue to leverage data, technology and innovation to promote the prosperity of our city and all its residents. Our team will continue to analyze the data from this portfolio of projects, and will share broader findings with the community this summer. 
 
As we conclude the live project demonstrations, I want to thank the residents and leaders of Columbus for collaborating with us to design, build and deploy these technology demonstrations. I want to give a heart-felt thanks to the residents and leaders in Linden. The people we worked alongside were amazing contributors to our work. Without you, the program would not have been possible. We hope that through this program, Linden and communities like it will be better served by emerging mobility technologies. Thanks too to the Smart Columbus delivery team, who through this work, accelerated a regional conversation around mobility and launched a mobility movement that will help close gaps in access to transportation in Columbus and beyond.