City of Portland Receives "ITS America Smart City Award" As National Leader for Use of Transportation Technology

"Portland Has Been One of the Leading U.S. Cities in the Deployment of Intelligent Transportation Systems to Solve Critical Transportation Challenges"

- Scott Belcher, ITS America

The Smart City Award was presented on Tuesday to Susan Keil, Director of the Portland Bureau of Transportation, and Peter Koonce, Division Manager of Signals and Street Lighting, by ITS America President and CEO Scott Belcher during the Women's Transportation Seminar/ITS Oregon luncheon in Portland.

"The ITS America Smart City Award is presented only to communities that are leaders in deploying Intelligent Transportation Systems to address critical transportation challenges," Belcher said. "The City of Portland is certainly worthy of this recognition.

"Portland's transportation leaders have been involved in an impressive collaboration with The Climate Trust and private sector companies to reduce traffic congestion, fuel consumption and CO₂ emissions by using technology to optimize the timing of traffic signals," according to Belcher. "This innovative project has eliminated more than 157,000 metric tons of CO₂ emissions in just six years -- the equivalent of removing 30,000 passenger vehicles from the road for an entire year. Through this and other innovative transportation solutions, the City of Portland is providing an example to cities and communities across the country of how to effectively deploy ITS technologies to address their critical transportation challenges."

Belcher noted that the City of Portland has also applied transit signal priority systems for buses that allow them to communicate with traffic signals to reduce wait times and improve on-time performance for riders. The City has also deployed a truck signal priority program, similar to the bus deployment, which has improved the movement of freight at select locations to reduce delays and significantly decrease the wear and tear of the roads near traffic lights and intersections.

In addition, the City of Portland has deployed advance information systems to reroute travelers in real time around accidents to alternative routes to reduce congestion, travel time and CO₂ emissions.

"These and other innovative ITS solutions clearly make Portland a Smart City and an example to other cities and communities across the country," Belcher said.

Belcher also presented the City of Portland, The Climate Trust, DKS Associates and Kittelson & Associates with the inaugural ITS America Smart Solutions Spotlight award for the innovative traffic signal optimization collaboration that resulted in the savings of more than 157,000 metric tons of CO₂ emissions in just six years. This is the equivalent of removing 30,000 passenger vehicles off the road for an entire year, or the equivalent of removing the emissions of 17.7 million gallons of gasoline.

The Intelligent Transportation Society of America represents more than 400 member organizations including public agencies, private corporations, and academic institutions involved in the research, development, and deployment of technologies that improve safety, increase mobility, and sustain the environment. http://www.itsa.org