Congratulations to Partners for Advanced Transportation Technology researchers Joshua Meng and Alex Kurzhanskiy on being awarded a $1,096,500 FY23 SMART grant with the Contra Costa Transportation Authority to develop and test an integrated, open standards-based platform for finding, booking, and using paratransit options across 26 public and private organizations.
The project, titled Integrated Open Data Platform for Multimodal Accessible Transportation (OPTIMAT), will address issues of multimodality, complexity, and accessibility for transportation services benefiting disadvantaged individuals. The Project will establish an open data-driven platform integrated system that offers customizable and timely transit information services for individuals with special mobility needs. This initiative will bring together data sources from various providers and develop customer-oriented tools. The target platform will engage 20+ public agencies, private providers, and non-profit organizations in the Contra Costa County area.
The award is one of 34 technology demonstration projects totaling over $50 across the country through the SMART Grants Program. The selected projects include locations in 22 states, the District of Columbia, and Puerto Rico. These awardees were selected from a total of 321 application submissions to the FY23 SMART Grants Program.
The Bipartisan Infrastructure Law established the Strengthening Mobility and Revolutionizing Transportation (SMART) Grants program to provide grants to eligible public sector agencies to conduct demonstration projects focused on advanced smart community technologies and systems to improve transportation efficiency and safety.
The SMART Grants Program is a two-stage program. These Stage 1 grant awards focus on initial deployment activities, including Planning and Prototyping. Recipients will focus on demonstrating technology prototypes, community engagement, and local capacity building.