Primarily funded by the USDOT’s Smart City Challenge, the Smart Columbus Program is a collection of eight transportation, mobility and data studies aimed at improving access to jobs, enhancing tourism, stimulating the economy, connecting residents to safe and reliable transportation, and supporting efficient and sustainable movement of people and goods throughout Columbus. The Connected Vehicle Environment (CVE) study was one of the eight Smart Columbus studies with the goal to enhance safety and mobility for vehicle operators, both private and public, and to improve pedestrian safety in school zones. The CVE study deployed secure, high-speed wireless communication technology in 1,000 vehicles and at 85 signalized intersections along four district corridors to exchange critical situational data between the infrastructure and vehicles, and between individual vehicles. The collected data was then used to alert drivers of potential safety issues through a heads-up display via the following applications: Red Light Violation Warning, Reduced Speed School Zone Warning, Emergency Vehicle Preemption, Transit Signal Priority, Intersection Movement Assist, Lane Change Warning/Blind Spot Warning, Emergency Electronic Brake Light Warning, and Forward Collision Warning. The CVE launched in October 2020 and continued through May 2021.

The total costs of the Connected Vehicle Environment were $11,374,200, including the costs by multiple vendors associated in both the deployment and operations phase:

• The total deployment cost was $9,770,937 (from August 2016 to October 2020)
• The total operations cost was $1,603,263 (from October 2020 to May 2021).

Table 1 summarizes the materials costs (software and services) that occurred monthly during the demonstration of the CVE. Since the CVE aimed to continue to operate post-demonstration, Table 2 summarizes the materials costs that occurred monthly after the completion of the demonstration. Both tables exclude services provided by cooperative agreement or software packages that had no cost associated with their use.

Table 1. Monthly Reoccurring and Support Costs During Demonstration. Source: City of Columbus

Table 2. Monthly Reoccurring and Support Costs Post-Demonstration. Source: City of Columbus