Grant Proposal for U.S. Department of Transportation Advance Transportation and Congestion Management Technologies Deployment (NOFO 693JJ317NF0001): Volume 1 – Technical Application

1.0 CITY OF CHULA VISTA

1.1 Executive Summary

The City of Chula Vista is pleased to present to the U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT) a proposal for the Advanced Transportation and Congestion Management Technology Deployment (ATCMTD) Grant, advertised on April 12, 2017.

The transportation technology model the City of Chula Vista embodies is a 21st Century approach to today's transportation issues. The City of Chula Vista approach represents initiatives founded under the Federal Highway Administration model, Moving Ahead for Progress in 21st Century (MAP-21), regional objectives, and local strategic goals. City of Chula Vista's MAP-21 project sets the course for a streamlined, performance and safety based initiatives that seek to address the many challenges facing the U.S. transportation system. These challenges include improving safety, maintaining infrastructure condition, reducing traffic congestion, improving efficiency of the system, and protecting the environment. The model the City of Chula Vista seeks to deploy is a comprehensive connected-Wi-Fi transportation system that provides streamlined efficiency in traffic management, traffic safety, and data collection and analysis.

This document will detail the City's vision and goals for the transportation technologies deployed, provide a plan for implementation, and outline a methodology for quantifying system performance, safety, and maintenance.

1.2 Introduction

The City of Chula Vista application for FHWA Office of Transportation Management – Advanced Transportation and Congestion Management Technologies Deployment (ATCMTD) program funding results:

• Into results-driven approach to reducing congestion in the Chula Vista region
• Reduction of traffic crashes
• Increase in public safety
• Increase monitoring of the City's traffic management system and its performance
• Increase of real time information to improve mobility efficiently
• Reduction of fuel consumption and greenhouse emissions
• Improvement of the City's traffic signal operations and network

Chula Vista's intends to utilize technology and information to connect our City, both geographically and on the information network. The benefits of this will be significant; vehicles and traffic signals throughout the community will be connected and this will increase public safety, shorten commutes, reduce greenhouse gas emissions, improve public health, and increase mobility at intersections for all modes of travel including motorists, bicyclists, pedestrians, transit, freight, and emergency vehicles. Promoting and providing safe and efficient public transportation between the two urban cores will help the economic vitally of the city and also eliminate barriers that affect low income households, senior citizens, adolescents, persons with disability and others who may have limited access to cars, which has resulted in diminished access to the local and regional transportation system and connected land use attractions.

Public safety and traffic system efficiency and congestion reduction program are captured in the proposed project application, includes a set of broad, comprehensive and complementary strategies that seek to manage effectively both demand as well as capacities to provide long term solutions to the public safety and congestion problems in Chula Vista region.

The proposed project effect the entire trip chain as the key, using Transportation Demand Management (TDM) tactics coupled with Intelligent Transportation Systems (ITS) technologies that provide for information and communication infrastructure for real-time traveler information, aggressive active demand management multimodal operation, and finally incentives for travelers to avoid congestions. This coordinated multimodal management of the surface transportation system will enable mode and route choice. Moreover, some of the initiatives can be defined as enablers that indirectly affect demand and capacity by providing the necessary support for other applications to evolve out of the connected and automated vehicle industry.

An integrated application of the diverse and wide ranging of strategies proposed in the Chula Vista proposal will offer greater effects on crashes, congestion, fuel consumption, and greenhouse emissions reduction than each of the strategies individually. In the end, the City of Chula Vista plans to design and document the evaluation of these deployments to capture the performance, benefits and costs of individual as well as integrated systems.

The combined effects of new infrastructure provision and more effective use of available proven infrastructure and transportation assets listed below will provide an excellent complement to the demand management activities and public safety:

• Advance Traveler Information Systems
• Advanced Transportation Management Technologies
• Infrastructure Maintenance, Monitoring, and Condition
• Advanced Public Transportation Systems
• Transportation System Performance Data Collection, Analysis, and Dissemination Systems
• Advance Safety Systems
• Integration of Intelligent Transportation Systems with Smart Grid and Energy Distribution
• Electronic Pricing and Payment Systems
• Advanced Mobility and Access Technologies

The Chula Vista region has its institutional structure and regional agreements in place and is confident that it can successfully implement the proposed projects. Chula Vista and its partners have full commitment and a thorough project plan in place which will ensure the full deployment of the proposed initiatives within the schedule.

1.3 Background

Getting to Know Chula Vista The City of Chula Vista is located in the southwestern tip of California and is the second largest city in San Diego County with a population of approximately 268,000 people. It is the 14th largest city in the state of California and the 76th largest city in the United States. What makes Chula Vista unique is that it is at the center one of the richest economic and culturally diverse zones in the United States. Located 7.5 miles from downtown San Diego and 7.5 miles from the one of the world's busiest international border crossing at the U.S.-Mexico Border. Chula Vista is approximately 50 square miles, consisting of urban-suburban development and intersected by 3 major freeways and a light rail trolley line with the highest ridership in the region. The City currently maintains and operates nearly 270 traffic signals and 9,500 streetlights.

Commitment to Smart City Initiatives

Chula Vista is a leader in the effective application of advanced technologies and innovative solutions to transportation problems and has a first-class record of delivering results. The City of Chula Vista has significant sustainability goals to bring the latest mobility and access technologies to the City for maximum energy-efficiency and sustainability and public safety outcomes. The City has recently been recognized as a top 10 finalist in the Smart Cities Council Readiness Challenge Grant Program and was selected for Envision America's 2017 Smart City Initiative.

Guided by our Strategic Plan, the Chula Vista local government is a service delivery organization that has long held a philosophy of continuous improvement. Our goals of operational excellence, economic vitality, healthy communities, strong and secure neighborhoods, and connected communities challenges all department heads to deliver evidence based projects that are tracked against performance metrics on the "Plan, Do, Check, and Act" continuous improvement cycle.

In the last 5 years, the City has received U.S. EPA Organizations Leadership Award, Green California Leadership Award, Institute for Local Government Award for "Local Leadership Toward Solving Climate Change", San Diego Gas & Electric (SDG&E) Excellence in Saving Energy Awards. Chula Vista has a strong commitment to the environment, conservation and sustainability. The City is considered a regional leader in renewable energy and being the first large City in the county to adopt a climate action plan in 2000. A new, climate action plan will be updated following the events of the Paris Agreement in which 289 U.S. City Mayors recommitted to the goals of the agreement. The City will continue to execute on the 20+ years actions and policies that were laid out to address climate change.

Chula Vista is a regionally designated Smart Growth City; has a successful track record of integrating public transportation into its General Planning process, with the Metropolitan Transportation Systems (MTS) "Blue Line" consistently recording the
region's highest ridership of any light rail line in the Region. The City continues its engagement with Regional programs, regularly partnering with the City of San Diego, City of National City, MTS, and the San Diego Port Authority to deliver improved services to its residents and the region.

More recently, the City became one of ten Autonomous Vehicle Proving Grounds. Working under a strong emphasis on the use of technology to provide a better quality of life, the City of Chula Vista, Caltrans District 11, and San Diego Association of Governments (SANDAG) submitted for and was approved by USDOT as an autonomous vehicle proving ground to showcase the advancements in automated vehicles. With this designation, the City of Chula Vista has received approval from the USDOT to host proving ground activities on all her streets, roads, and other facilities.

Proven Track Record

Our commitment to improvements in transportation and traffic safety is highlighted in our success in acquiring transportation grant funding in recent years. Nearly 60 million dollars of federal funds have been awarded to the City of Chula Vista within the last decade. A detailed description of grant award funding is provided in Volume 2 of this application. Some notable highlights include total project funding of:

• Active Transportation Grants, $740K
• Safe Routes to School, nearly $1M
• Highway Safety Improvement Program, $7.9M
• Community Development Block Grant, $1.3M
• Highway Bridge Program, $43.3M
• Smart Growth Incentive Program, $4.2M

The projects funded under these grants demonstrate the City's pledge to providing quality service delivery in transportation to the citizens of Chula Vista. These projects also represent the City's ability to manage projects and extensive experience in successfully delivering federally funded projects. The City is fully committed and looking forward to the opportunity to collaborate with the US Department of Transportation in meeting the ATMCTD initiatives with the projects presented in this proposal.