Ithaca receives grant for traffic and transportation initiatives

U.S. Senate Majority Leader Charles E. Schumer and U.S. Senator Kirsten Gillibrand announced in March that the City of Ithaca will receive over $1.7 million in federal funding as a first-round recipient of the U.S. Department of Transportation’s (DOT) Strengthening Mobility and Revolutionizing Transportation (SMART) grants program.

“There is a nationwide backlog of projects to repair roads and bridges and improve safety and economic competitiveness. Because of the funds in the infrastructure law, the U.S. Department of Transportation is now funding more of these projects via our competitive grant programs, and we are providing States and local governments far more funding to deliver projects, as well,” according to the DOT website. “Projects span the full scope of transportation infrastructure in the United States, including roads, bridges, transit, rail, airports, seaports, and pipelines, in rural, urban, suburban and Tribal areas.”

The SMART program was established by the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law (BIL) and has $100 million allocated annually for fiscal years 2022-2026. SMART focuses on placing smart community technologies and systems in communities to improve transportation efficiency and safety. The goal of the BIL is to “improve public safety and climate resilience and creating jobs across the country.”

“Thanks to the Bipartisan Infrastructure & Jobs Law, Ithaca is now in the fast lane for the future of safe and innovative transportation,” said Senator Schumer. “Over $1.7 million to upgrade traffic signals will pave the way to keep our streets safe for our schoolchildren and brave first responders. As majority leader, I am proud to have led the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law to passage and deliver this major boost in federal funding to give Ithacans a safer and more streamlined commute.”

The funding is meant to improve the efficiency of school buses, transit and fire operations. This federal investment will help Ithaca deploy a traffic signal priority (TSP) system for transit buses, school buses and fire trucks at up to 15 high-traffic intersections. 

TSP is used in many cities to make transit vehicles traveling through intersections more efficient by adjusting the timing of traffic signals. Ithaca’s proposal will create a GPS-based TSP system that will serve public transit vehicles, in addition to school buses and fire trucks. The system will be designed to quickly adjust to support firefighters responding to emergencies, as well as changes to public and school bus routes.

The system does this through a type of recognition system where a bus or truck is equipped with a signal and, once the vehicle is in range of a traffic light with the receiving software, the light, if green, will remain green long enough for the bus or truck to pass through.

Both Erin Cuddihy, transportation engineer for the City of Ithaca, and Tompkins Consolidated Area Transit (TCAT) General Manager Scot Vanderpool said that it is important to know that the drivers have no control over this signal; it is not a button they can use to change the traffic signal. It simply uses the GPS recognition technology when a vehicle with the proper equipment is in range. 

Both emphasized that the system will not stop all traffic and suddenly change the lights at an intersection solely for the bus or truck. It only keeps the green light on longer, allowing for more efficient emergency response and public transportation. 

“This is stage one of the SMART grant program, which is what this grant is. The stage-one grants are to do the demonstration project and, you know, do a proof-of-concept project,” Cuddihy said. “The stage-two grants, which you can apply for in the future if you’re a stage-one grant recipient and successful, helps extend the project further or expand the project into more areas. That’s what we’re hoping to do.” 

Cuddihy said this specific TSP initiative is unique because the city is working to include the TSP equipment on fire trucks and school buses, not just public service buses. 

“There are different kinds of TSP transit signal priority, and we’re still deciding exactly how we’re going to modify the signals to allow our buses or school buses and our fire trucks to have the green light as quickly as they can,” Cuddihy said. “We want to be the least disruptive to other traffic. Signal preemption for fire trucks is quite disruptive to the signal cycle. It just gives the approaching traffic a green and it gives all the other traffic or red light. Signal priority is less disruptive to the traffic cycle.”

There is no one TSP system that can be purchased and installed. A traffic signal design and operations company, or multiple companies, will help design a system specific to the city’s goals and needs. Cuddihy said that even though the companies the city is working with have not created a system to do what Ithaca is looking to implement, they believe they can create an effective system and are excited about the prospect of being able to extend TSP. 

The senators also secured over $8 million from the U.S. DOT Low and No Emission Vehicle Grant Program for TCAT. The federal funding will go toward purchasing six 40-foot electric buses as well as four electric micro-buses, improving Ithaca’s accessibility and transportation services and accelerating the city’s emission reduction goals. 

TCAT is one the City of Ithaca’s partners on the SMART project, which also includes the Ithaca City School District, Ithaca Fire Department and NYS Department of Transportation. 

TCAT is also working on a TCAT On-Demand project, funded through a grant from the New York State Electric Research and Development Authority (NYSERDA), in partnership with Unbroken Promises Initiative (UPI) to better serve the West Hill community that does not have easy access to TCAT locations. 

The electric micro-buses TCAT will purchase are part of this project. Additionally, UPI and TCAT will add nine electric cars and SUVs to their fleet of On-Demand transportation. The program is set to launch in January 2024.

“There are still parts that we are working on to have this as user friendly as possible from local input to software for the On-Demand part,” Vanderpool said. “We have a community event to introduce the project planned for the end of April and are really hoping to hear more for the people this is intended to serve.”

Additionally, UPI will create a call center to help people without smartphones use the system. The call center will help find them available On-Demand services and schedule their trip to best fit the caller’s needs and schedule. 

“This is something that we are really excited about,” Vanderpool said. “We’re still working on the app, but we are really looking for that community engagement because [the community is] an important part of this project and their feedback will inform how this project will work and continue to run because it won’t be perfect at first. The only way for this to be successful is if we listen.”