The full story
The Texas A&M Transportation Institute will receive the grant under a program called Saving Lives with Connectivity: Accelerating V2X Deployment.
According to USDOT, V2X, or vehicle-to-everything technology, enables vehicles to communicate with each other, traffic signals, pedestrians, bicyclists and roadside infrastructure. The goal of the program is to help prevent crashes, reduce congestion and lower vehicle fatalities.
The grant will advance testing technology that could enable cars to tell drivers about:
- The status of a traffic signal before it changes
- If a bicyclist or pedestrian is in the car's turn path
- If there are slow-downs ahead, such as crashes or construction
- Dangerous road and weather conditions, including flooding
Specific details
Testing in Texas will start with the Greater Houston region and the city of College Station, including near the Texas A&M campus.
The project will leverage nearly 1,000 existing Signal Phase and Timing installations in Houston. Signal Phase and Timing intersections, or SPaT, collect information about traffic signals and are often used by cities to better time signal changes, according to the USDOT. Another 30 new intersections will also be equipped with the technology. Testing in Houston will be looking for specific information on:
- Right turn on red warning
- Red light violation warning
- Wrong way driving
- Emergency vehicle response time and safety
- Hurricane evacuation
- Planned special events and construction
- Flood warning
What they're saying
Texas A&M Institute Director Greg Winfree said receiving the grant is going to be a significant step forward in the state's mission to enhance road safety through cutting-edge technology.
"By deploying these advanced systems in the Greater Houston area and College Station, we aim to serve as a national model for reducing roadway fatalities and improving overall traffic efficiency,” he said in an Aug. 9 statement.
U.S. Congresswoman Lizzie Fletcher echoed Winfree's sentiment that keeping roadways safe is an important part of keeping communities safe.
“It is critical that we work together to make our roads safer," she said. "That is why I am glad that the U.S. Department of Transportation has awarded the Texas A&M Transportation Institute $19.2 million to promote vehicle to everything technologies to accelerate the development and adoption of life-saving technologies here in Houston and across the country."
