Federal Funding to Boost Traffic Flow at Canadian Border and Improve Pedestrian Safety
Funding comes from SMART Grant Program, which Cantwell and Murray fought to secure in Bipartisan Infrastructure Law
WASHINGTON, D.C. – U.S. Senators Maria Cantwell (D-WA) chair of the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation, and Patty Murray (D-WA) chair of the Senate Committee on Appropriations announced the Washington State Department of Transportation (WSDOT) and Intercity Transit will receive $8.6 million to deploy new technologies that will provide better information for travelers and streamline crossings at the Canadian border, and help identify dangerous intersections for pedestrians, cyclists, and vehicles. Funding comes from the Strengthening Mobility and Revolutionizing Transportation (SMART) grants program, which Sens. Cantwell and Murray fought to secure in the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law (BIL).
WSDOT to receive $6,599,400 to improve traffic flow at Canadian Border: The current border wait time systems at the Canadian border are over 20 years old and are failing or becoming obsolete. In 2022, the Whatcom Council of Governments received a Stage One SMART grant to evaluate and pilot hardware to improve the system’s reliability. Building on the work from Stage One, WSDOT will deploy a border wait time system for passenger and commercial vehicles at four Points of Entry in Whatcom County that will provide real-time border conditions, trip planning tools, traffic management information, and predictive analytics tools for the traveling public, commercial carriers, and the transportation and inspection agencies. These investments should help streamline border crossings and support better traffic management during major surges in cross-border traffic, including the 2026 FIFA World Cup.
“The systems that provide travelers information about wait times at our northern border are over 20 years old and desperately need an upgrade,” said Sen. Cantwell. “This grant will provide crucial funding to install new technology that will improve traffic management during border-crossing surges that will keep travelers and goods moving, including when over 750,000 people visit Seattle for the 2026 World Cup.”
“These SMART grants will be put to great use across Washington state: helping to improve traffic flow at the Canadian border so that folks can get across with fewer delays, making the streets safer for pedestrians and cyclists in Olympia, and managing curb space in Seattle to reduce congestion and provide a roadmap for other dense metro areas,” said Sen. Murray. “The Bipartisan Infrastructure Law is making it easier and safer for people to get where they need to go—that’s why we worked so hard to pass this law and will keep pushing to get funding out the door.”
Intercity Transit to receive $2,000,000 to improve pedestrian safety: Intercity Transit, a public transportation provider in Thurston County, will install smart sensors with AI analytics to identify intersections where conflicts occur between pedestrians, cyclists, and vehicles. Information collected by these sensors will help inform traffic planning decisions which will make it safer for people to walk, bike, and take transit to reach their destinations.
“2023 was the deadliest year on Washington state roads in over 30 years. We need to do more to prevent fatalities and improve transportation safety for everyone,” said Sen. Cantwell. “This grant funding will allow Intercity Transit to install state-of-the-art AI sensors along 10 different intersections in Lacey to identify where accidents are happening and help fix dangerous roads.”
The City of Seattle will also share in a $14,849,730 grant to manage curb space and reduce idling. In FY 2022, the City of Seattle and Minneapolis received SMART grant funding to design and pilot a data-driven curb space management system to manage demand for curb space for package deliveries and passenger pick-up and drop-offs. This funding will scale up the pilot program to tackle key tasks: improve data collection and AI analysis of curb management ecosystems, increase public engagement, and expand workforce and capacity building. This approach will provide a roadmap for the public and private sectors and other metropolitan cities to adopt and implement data-driven and policy-driven curb management systems to coordinate smart use of limited curb space, reducing idling, congestion, and unnecessary emissions when delivery drivers must search for places to park in highly dense metro areas.
As the chair of the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation, Sen. Cantwell has long been a champion of investment in Washington state’s transportation infrastructure. In the first three years of the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, the state has received nearly $10 billion for transportation infrastructure projects across Washington state.
In 2021, Sen. Cantwell fought to include $500 million in the BIL for the SMART Grant Program to help states, cities, and localities pursue smart transportation projects that increase transportation efficiency and safety, advance connected vehicles and intelligent transportation systems integration, and support technological transportation advancements in communities nationwide. The program was authorized as part of Sen. Cantwell’s bipartisan S. 2016, Surface Transportation Investment Act, which was incorporated into the BIL.
Sen. Murray helped pass the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law as Assistant Majority Leader and, as a senior member of the powerful Senate Appropriations Committee, has fought successfully over the years to boost investment in a wide range of transportation and infrastructure grant programs that benefit Washington state. As Chair of the Appropriations Committee, Sen. Murray wrote and passed the transportation appropriations bill for fiscal year 2024, which funds the Department of Transportation as well as key programs like RAISE and Capital Investment Grants, and was signed into law in March.
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