New York City will install vehicle-to-vehicle technology in 10,000 buses, taxis, limousines, and city fleet vehicles as part of a $23 million federally funded initiative designed to reduce future congestion and greenhouse gas emissions.
The New York Department of Transportation is overseeing the initial pilot phase of the New York City project. Two other projects have been approved for Wyoming and Tampa with $42 million in funding from the U.S. Department of Transportation’s national Connected Vehicle Pilot program.
The projects go beyond traditional vehicle technologies to help drivers better use the roadways to get to work and appointments, relieve the stress caused by bottlenecks, and communicate with pedestrians on cell phones of approaching vehicles.
In New York City, transportation planners began using an initial $3 million outlay to develop a plan for implementation of the technology that’s known as V2V.
During the next two phases, the city will install after-market devices in the vehicles and oversee monitoring and collection of data. The city expects to receive another $20 million over four years to implement the project, according to an NY DOT spokesperson.
The 10,000 vehicles would include MTA buses, city DOT vehicles, Taxi & Limousine Commission-licensed vehicles, and commercial trucks. About 7,500 taxis, 1,500 buses, 500 city vehicles, and 500 commercial vehicles will participate in the pilot and share anonymous data on speed, location and braking from other vehicles as well as pedestrian walking and the delivering warning messages from other vehicles, according to the NYC DOT.
