CMU’s Traffic21 Announces Winners of Third Smart Mobility Challenge

Carnegie Mellon University - Earlier this month, Carnegie Mellon University's Traffic21 announced the Township of Shaler, the City of Monessen and Heritage Community Transportation as the winners of its third Smart Mobility Challenge. Traffic21, a research institute operated out of CMU's Heinz College of Information Systems and Public Policy and Mobility21 , its affiliated USDOT National University Transportation Center in the College of Engineering , sponsored this year's challenge as a continuation of its mission of transforming southwestern Pennsylvania into a testbed for mobility innovation. With generous funding from the Hillman Foundation and the USDOT, the Smart Mobility Challenge invited representatives of municipalities and public transit operators in Allegheny, Armstrong, Beaver, Butler, Fayette, Greene, Indiana, Lawrence, Washington and Westmoreland counties to identify real-world mobility challenges affecting their communities and apply to receive support from CMU faculty and students. "The problems submitted for consideration illustrate the mobility challenges we face in southwestern Pennsylvania and the awareness and dedication of our local leaders and transit operators to find solutions," said Lisa Kay Schweyer, program manager of Traffic21. Walk Bike Shaler , in partnership with the Township of Shaler , will partner with CMU researchers from the Remaking Cities Institute (RCI) to inform and contribute to the Better Boulevard Initiative. CMU, providing urban design and computer vision expertise, will deploy cameras for visual data, develop computer vision algorithms to analyze data, develop mobility/urban design recommendations from the data and respond to community priorities.