Challenge winners to pilot new technologies for public transit safety

Transit Tech Lab (a public-private initiative created by MTA and Partnership for New York City) have announced six winners of the Recovery and Sustainability Challenge.

The Challenge will deploy technologies to address public transit safety, track new mobility patterns and support clean energy goals over a one-year pilot.

The companies recently completed proof of concepts and will scale their solutions with the MTA, the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey (PANYNJ), and NJ TRANSIT. They will leverage emerging technologies, including LiDAR, artificial intelligence, computer vision, and managed charging to deter unsafe behaviour, curb fare evasion, and improve the sustainability and resiliency of transportation infrastructure.  

The Challenge launched during the Summer of 2022 and solicited nearly 150 applicants from across the world. Pilot winners were evaluated and selected by a team of 38 transit and public safety experts based on the technologies’ impact, product, team, and value of solution.  

Recovery Challenge pilot winners were Blyncsy, based in Salt Lake City, which catalogs roadway infrastructure and conditions in real time, including pavement markings, obstacles and road deterioration to facilitate maintenance and enhance asset management systems. Also, Quanergy of Sunnydale, California, which uses LiDAR hardware paired with analytic software to improve transportation challenges. Quanergy’s Flow Management solution can report unsafe behaviour, offer object detection, and measure passenger flows. 

Sustainability Challenge pilot winners were:

• GridMatrix (San Francisco, CA) – Processes live feeds from cameras and translates it into metrics on traffic congestion, signal performance, vehicular emissions and roadway safety. 
• Stormsensor (Seattle, WA) – Provides cost-effective stormwater/climate-data and predictive analytics to mitigate flooding, simplify monitoring, and streamline maintenance and operations procedures to better deploy emergency resources in weather events. 
• The Mobility House (Belmont, CA) – Enables intelligent integration of electric vehicles with the grid while minimising charging costs. The software provides insights on how to maximise electric bus availability. 
• Runwise (New York, NY) – Uses wireless technology and web-based software to provide actionable opportunities to reduce energy consumption and optimise heating in buildings. 

Each year since 2019, winners selected through the Transit Tech Lab are eligible for competitive funding from the New York State Energy Research and Development Authority (NYSERDA), which then selects projects that demonstrate innovative clean transportation solutions. 

The Transit Tech Lab will also expand its network of transportation experts with two new Executives-in-Residence. Ronnie Hakim, HNTB’s National Transit and Rail Market Leader, and Sally Librera, AECOM’s Transit Market Leader for the Americas, will provide Lab companies strategic advice on working with public agencies.