Ford and the Austin Transportation Department’s Smart Mobility team are launching the Austin City:One Challenge, a co-creation and crowdsourcing program for residents, businesses and community groups to propose and pilot solutions that improve mobility.
While Austin continues to be one of the fastest growing cities in the country, that growth has also impacted mobility in the city. The average driver, for example, now spends more than 50 hours in traffic a year, and as the city continues to grow and evolve, the need for new mobility solutions will continue to be apparent. Locally, city leaders are looking to make it easier for people living in all parts of Austin to access the services and resources required for living a healthy life.
The City:One Challenge is designed to complement the city’s efforts by facilitating a collaborative process with the community, offering residents the opportunity to share their experiences and suggest ideas for how to solve their most pressing mobility problems. The goal is to help improve the quality of life for Austin residents and visitors through dynamic mobility options that complement the existing transportation system.
“Austin has distinguished itself as both a city on the cutting edge of technology and one where community input helps shape solutions. Our mobility challenges are an ideal issue to make the focus of these signature attributes,” said Austin Mayor Steve Adler. “The City:One Challenge program is perfect for a city like ours. Austin is where great ideas become real.”
Throughout the eight-month City:One Challenge program, those who live, work and play in Austin are invited to explore dynamic mobility options focused around their top needs. Ford and Challenge collaborators, including sponsors AT&T, Dell Technologies and Microsoft, also will assist with the community collaboration process. The challenge provides up to $100,000 to fund pilots that test the top solutions.
Austin is the fourth city to launch the City:One Challenge in 2019, following previous announcements in Indianapolis, Detroit and Mexico City. Each challenge is tailored to the specific city or county and is focused on addressing its unique needs.
“To truly solve problems that affect the way people move in our cities, we believe it’s imperative to encourage all residents to take part in the process, identify serious issues, and propose solutions that lead to greater access for everyone,” said Jeff Jones, vice president, Ford City Solutions. “With the City:One Challenge, our goal is to engage people on a personal level, to really understand the unique issues that affect their day-to-day lives, as we look for solutions that have a real chance to improve their experiences.”
Ford launched its city challenge platform in 2018 in Pittsburgh, Miami-Dade County and Grand Rapids, Mich. The three challenges resulted in ongoing pilots addressing issues ranging from long, inefficient student pickup lines at schools to safer transportation methods for night shift workers who must travel during non-traditional hours.
How it works – and how to get involved
Starting today, Austin residents interested in participating can go to the City:One Challenge website to share their mobility experiences and sign up for community working sessions. Ford and its collaborators will combine insights from online submissions and the community workshops with advanced data analytics to help shape the issues explored by the Challenge.
The first community workshop will take place on July 18 at the Asian American Resource Center, from 5:30 p.m CDT. Other workshop dates will be announced in the future on the Challenge website. Community members, businesses, startups and innovators can begin submitting ideas for new mobility solutions to the biggest challenges Austin travelers face during the application period, which opens the week of August28.
In October, a committee of city officials, community stakeholders and corporate collaborators will select 12 finalists to attend a prototyping session and receive mentoring support to refine their ideas before submitting a final pilot proposal. Finally, a panel of judges working with Austin city officials, Ford, and its corporate collaborators will award up to $100,000 to fund pilots to test the top proposed solutions.
About Ford Motor Company
Ford Motor Company is a global company based in Dearborn, Michigan. The company designs, manufactures, markets and services a full line of Ford cars, trucks, SUVs, electrified vehicles and Lincoln luxury vehicles, provides financial services through Ford Motor Credit Company and is pursuing leadership positions in electrification, autonomous vehicles and mobility solutions. Ford employs approximately 196,000 people worldwide. For more information regarding Ford, its products and Ford Motor Credit Company, please visit www.corporate.ford.c
First off please educate drivers that you decelerate a vehicle by removing your foot off of the accelerator! That DOES NOT mean when doing so, to immediately hit your brakes. It takes longer to start over rather than casually traveling with the flow of traffic.
Secondly, educate drivers that posted signs alerting drivers to exits ahead are there for a reason. Please DO NOT drive in a continuous lane of flow thru traffic and when reaching your desired exit, stop in your lane of flow thru traffic and attempt to cut off other lanes of traffic or simply by stopping in your attempt to make your desired exit.
Thirdly, educate drivers that continuously changing lanes in your attempt to move forward more rapidly only causes other drivers to brake unnecessarily causing traffic in all lanes to slow.
Fourthly, there are way too many distractions inside a motor vehicle, so prior to operating a motor vehicle, please get your monkey ass out of bed early and call who you need to, put on your makeup in the bathroom, comb or brush your hair, drink your Starbucks and read the news or watch the news at home before you choose to operate a motor vehicle.
Fifthly, release your phone and use wireless Bluetooth. It was invented for that purpose.
Lastly, let me say that driving is not the same all states, so please adjust accordingly.
I have been in this city for 62 years and have watched this city change dramatically, so I would like to take this opportunity to make a few suggestions to the City of Austin, TxDot etc.
I appreciate everyone’s input into building our City, but it serves no purpose whatsoever to design changes in our current year and by the time the changes are made, they are outdated. Please attempt to look into the future and plan accordingly towards the completion date.
An example of that is the way the flow of traffic is continuously interrupted by the entrance and exit ramps along IH 35 are so short that it is entirely impossible to speed up on an access road which is usually 35 to 45 mph in which to conveniently merge into traffic on the interstate at 65 mph. Not to mention that most OTR truckers are made to drive in the right lane also impeding ones ability to merge properly. Also, the exit ramps from IH 35 onto the feeder road are so short that it is necessary for all vehicles choosing to exit, literally have to slow down to 35-45 mph in a 65 mph zone in which to make the exit furthermore interrupting flow thru traffic. Also, Drivers Education Courses should be reinstated as a mandatory curriculum for all people obtaining a state issued drivers license, including sitting in a vehicle simulator trailer with multiple drivers prior to getting behind the wheel of a motor vehicle. Please do away with all the self proclaimed driving schools with teachers who are retired from their previous places of employment and definitely should not be teaching drivers education course when they should not even be having a drivers license at their age. Thank You.