WASHINGTON – The U.S. Department of Transportation’s Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) today announced that it is awarding $19.6 million in grants to Arizona under the Saving Lives with Connectivity: Accelerating V2X Deployment program to advance connected and interoperable vehicle technologies. The Maricopa County Department of Transportation will receive the grant for the Connected Vehicle Acceleration Zone project that will serve as a national model to accelerate and spur new deployments of vehicle-to-everything (V2X) technologies. The Arizona grant was awarded as part of a $60 million grant package awarded to Arizona, Texas and Utah.
“As this Department explores every measure that can help reduce roadway fatalities, connected vehicle technology—like V2X—has potential to make roads safer and save lives,” said U.S. Secretary of Transportation Pete Buttigieg. “The grants we’re announcing today are helping accelerate the development and adoption of potentially life-saving V2X technology nationwide.”
The Maricopa County DOT will lead a largescale deployment of V2X technologies, relying primarily on 5.9 GHz communications, to connect 750 physical roadside units and virtual roadside units to an estimated 400 vehicle onboard units targeting transit, emergency and freight fleets. The project will deploy Emergency Vehicle Preemption, Vulnerable Road User detection, Transit Signal Priority, and Freight Signal Priority applications in the Cities of Phoenix, Tolleson, Avondale and unincorporated Maricopa County, as well as along ADOT’s US 60.
“Arizona is a leader in promoting and deploying V2X technologies to explore the potential to save lives on our nation’s highways,” said Federal Highway Administrator Shailen Bhatt. “The funding provided today will help accelerate the technology so that we can deploy it on a national scale and provide new tools to combat fatalities on our nation’s highways.”
“Maricopa County and its partners have been developing and testing connected vehicle technology for more than 15 years,” said Maricopa County Board of Supervisor Chairman Jack Sellers. “We are grateful to the USDOT and FHWA for this grant which will accelerate our ability to deploy the V2X technology to Maricopa County and bring safety and mobility improvements to our rapidly growing region.”
The Saving Lives with Connectivity: Accelerating V2X Deployment initiative is focused on road safety, mobility, and efficiency through technology that enables vehicles and wireless devices to communicate with each other and with roadside infrastructure and provide warnings. V2X can contribute to the Safe System Approach adopted by the USDOT’s National Roadway Safety Strategy, a comprehensive approach launched in January 2022 to address the crisis of roadway deaths.
The grants announced today will promote the deployment of V2X technologies with the goal of advancing the full lifesaving potential of V2X communication, while ensuring connected technologies communicate securely and without harmful interference across a variety of devices and platforms.
More information on the V2X grants is available here: FHWA Operations – Improving Day-to-Day Operations