The U.S. DOT named seven finalists: Austin, Columbus, Denver, Kansas City, Pittsburgh, Portland, and San Francisco. The seven finalists dreamed big: they planned to implement autonomous shuttles to move city residents, to electrify city fleets, and to collectively equip over thirteen thousand buses, taxis, and cars with vehicle-to-vehicle Dedicated Short Range Communications (DSRC) technology. Over a three month period, these finalists worked closely with the Department, their residents, and each other to develop detailed plans to put their Smart City visions into action. Each received $100,000 for public outreach, the production of pitch videos, and intensive technical assistance from Federal experts and private partners to further concept development. Through this process, the finalists refined their vision for what a smart city could be:

• Smart cities are improving how we move by supporting more affordable and sustainable mobility choices, improving the quality and reliability of transit services, enhancing pedestrian and bicycle infrastructure, and making better use of the space allocated to parking.
• Smart cities promote the efficiency, reliability and safety of how we move things through traffic signals that prioritize freight movements, apps that provide truckers with information about routes and parking, automated low speed freight delivery systems that enable the consolidation of deliveries, and automated trucks.
• Smart cities are taking the lead in how we adapt to climate change by installing electric vehicle infrastructure, converting public fleets and buses to electric vehicles, incentivizing shared-use mobility options, and closely monitoring air pollution to identify and address emissions hotspots.
• Advances in technology are allowing cities to collect, analyze, and apply data to discover how we move better.
• Smart cities are taking steps to ensure that new technologies grow opportunity for all by connecting underserved communities to job centers through affordable, reliable transportation options and by bridging the digital divide.
• To enhance the capabilities of the public to understand transportation challenges and implement innovative solutions, cities are looking to develop new integrated data platforms to make better decisions and align decisions and dollars.