The city of Indianapolis has been chosen to participate in the Transportation for America’s Smart Cities Collaborative—a program that brings together cities with an aim of using cutting-edge technology and policies to improve urban transportation.
Over the next year, city leaders will join with officials from 21 other major municipalities to share best practices in transportation with a focus on reshaping the use of right-of-way and curb space.
The Smart Cities Collaborative focuses on the creation of city-specific goals and policies related to design, measurement, management and the price of long-term transport infrastructure development.
“This is an exciting announcement for our city, as this partnership with Transportation for America will help advance our efforts to create a more accessible community,” Mayor Joe Hogsett said in a media statement. “With their support, we will work with experts and leaders from cities across the country to identify and implement mobility solutions that benefit all Indianapolis residents.”
The Washington, D.C.-based Transportation for America is a policy organization focused on building grassroots support for laws that champion progressive transportation and land use policy.
The city of Indianapolis said it would capitalize on the Smart Cities Collaborative by funneling time and resources toward the development of “mobility hubs.” The hubs will arrange multimodal transit options—bus lines, bike share stations, bike parking, and vehicle sharing—into several, centralized locations in dense, walkable areas.
Collaborating with IndyGo, the city will work to deploy strategies that maximize the potential of existing infrastructure and build an accessible and effective city-wide transit system, the city said.
The city of Indianapolis was selected from a group of 50 cities that applied to be a part of this year’s collaborative cohort. Throughout the year, city leaders will participate in a variety of interactive workshops and receive direct technical assistance. The results with be shared with the rest of the collaborative to drive best practices across the country.
The city’s Department of Metropolitan Development, Department of Public Works and IndyGo, in addition to several community partners, will participate in the collaborative. The first meeting will be held in Denver on April 16-17.