The California Department of Transportation has introduced that it was awarded $7.7 million in federal Advanced Transportation Technology and Innovation grant funding to assist the Southern California Mobility Wallet, an modern manner to enhance entry to transportation via a seamless fee system.

“We have to innovate and incorporate technology in order to meet the transportation needs of all Californians,” mentioned Caltrans Director Tony Tavares. “This grant will increase access and mobility for underserved communities and help move California toward a universal payment system for transit.”

The Advanced Transportation Technology and Innovation grant will broaden the Southern California Mobility Wallet venture, which makes use of “open-loop” funds know-how to supply seamless fee to freeway and transit companies for Los Angeles County residents. An open-loop system permits vacationers to pay with financial institution or bank cards to entry totally different distributors, facilitating a number of public transit or freeway funds and bettering the expertise throughout all modes of journey together with public transit, electrical car charging stations, and roadway tolling.

The venture additionally points direct funds to Los Angeles County residents to pay for mobility companies, enabling vacationers to buy rides on native public transportation with their contactless credit score and debit playing cards. Residents with out entry to conventional banking shall be issued a contactless debit card that can be utilized at any retailer that accepts financial institution card funds, and funds shall be immediately issued to this card for his or her mobility wants.

The Southern California Mobility Wallet stems from a partnership between the Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority and Caltrans, which created and manages the California Integrated Travel Project, an initiative to broaden multimodal journey all through California by standardizing funds, journey planning, and buyer reductions.

The California Integrated Travel Project has efficiently led contactless open-loop fee implementations in California on Monterey-Salinas and Santa Barbara buses; Sacramento gentle rail; intercity passenger rail between Sacramento and the San Francisco Bay Area; on-demand transit vans; and LAX’s FlyAway bus, which connects airport passengers to commuter rail in Los Angeles. Learn more about Cal-ITP at calitp.org.

Advanced Transportation Technology and Innovation grants are administered by the U.S. Department of Transportation’s Federal Highway Administration and funded by the federal Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act of 2021 (IIJA). Also often known as the “Bipartisan Infrastructure Law,” the IIJA is a once-in-a-generation funding in our nation’s infrastructure to enhance the sustainability and resiliency of our power, water, broadband and transportation techniques.

Since November 2021, California has acquired $20 billion in federal infrastructure funding. That contains greater than $15 billion in federal transportation funding to improve the state’s roads, bridges, rail, public transit, airports, electrical car charging community, ports, and waterways. These transportation investments alone have already created practically 48,000 jobs.