HOUSTON – The U.S. Department of Transportation’s Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) announced on Aug. 9 that it is awarding a $19.2 million grant to Texas under the Saving Lives with Connectivity: Accelerating V2X Deployment program to advance connected and interoperable vehicle technologies. The Texas A&M Transportation Institute (TTI) will receive the grant for the Texas TRUST Project: Transforming Roads, Unleashing Smart Technologies that will serve as a national model to accelerate and spur new deployments of vehicle-to-everything (V2X) technologies. The Texas grant was awarded as part of a $60 million grant package awarded to Arizona, Texas and Utah.
“As this Department explores every measure that can help reduce roadway fatalities, connected vehicle technology—like V2X—has potential to make roads safer and save lives,” said U.S. Secretary of Transportation Pete Buttigieg. “The grants we’re announcing today are helping accelerate the development and adoption of potentially life-saving V2X technology nationwide.”
Texas A&M Transportation Institute will use the grant to deploy V2X technology in the Greater Houston area, the City of College Station, including near the campus of Texas A&M University, and the corridors connecting these two metropolitan cities. The project serves to holistically enhance safety, efficiency, and overall mobility for vulnerable road users (VRU) situated at signalized intersections, emergency responders navigating through varying traffic scenarios, transit operators seeking efficient routes, workers operating within construction zones, and everyday motorists.
“Texas is a leader in promoting and deploying V2X technologies to explore the potential to save lives on our nation’s highways,” said Federal Highway Administrator Shailen Bhatt. “The funding provided today will help accelerate the technology so that we can deploy it on a national scale and provide new tools to combat fatalities on our nation’s highways.”
“Keeping our roadways safe is an important part of keeping our communities safe,” said Congresswoman Lizzie Fletcher. “According to the City of Houston’s Vision Zero 2021 Annual Report, however, 331 people were killed and 1,620 people were seriously injured on Houston’s streets that year. It is critical that we work together to make our roads safer, and 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 (V2X) technologies to accelerate the development and adoption of life-saving technologies here in Houston and across the country.”
“Receiving this grant is a significant step forward in our mission to enhance road safety through cutting-edge technology,” said TTI Agency Director Greg Winfree. “The Texas TRUST Project exemplifies our commitment to using V2X technologies to create smarter, safer transportation systems. 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.”
The Saving Lives with Connectivity: Accelerating V2X Deployment initiative is focused on road safety, mobility, and efficiency through technology that enables vehicles and wireless devices to communicate with each other and with roadside infrastructure and provide warnings. V2X can contribute to the Safe System Approach adopted by the USDOT’s National Roadway Safety Strategy, a comprehensive approach launched in January 2022 to address the crisis of roadway deaths.
The grants announced today will promote the deployment of V2X technologies with the goal of advancing the full lifesaving potential of V2X communication, while ensuring connected technologies communicate securely and without harmful interference across a variety of devices and platforms.
More information on the V2X grant announcement is available at Connected/Automated Vehicles and Emerging Technologies.