Despite a valiant and much-touted effort led by Mayor Steve Adler, the city of Austin failed to win a U.S. Department of Transportation "Smart City" challenge, according to reports on Twitter and in The Columbus Dispatch.
Yvonne Nava of KVUE was among the first to report the transpo fail on Twitter.
JUST IN: Austin *did not* win the Smart City Challenge. Instead the $40 million grant is headed to Columbus, Ohio.
— Yvonne Nava (@YvonneN_KVUE) June 21, 2016
Austin Monitor's Caleb Pritchard soon followed with a link to the Dispatch.
Columbus Dispatch has more details on Austin's Smart City Challenge upset: https://t.co/yPcIWYOuMa
— Caleb Alan Pritchard (@cubbie9000) June 21, 2016
The Dispatch story reports that Columbus will receive "$50 million in grant funding from the federal government and Vulcan Inc. to develop the city into a test track for intelligent transportation systems." The paper added that federal officials would be in the city Thursday to make the official announcement.
Pritchard also tweeted that Adler's office was preparing a statement.
Austin competed with the winning city as well as with San Francisco, Portland, Kansas City, Denver, and Pittsburgh in the challenge. The proposal pushed by Adler involved combatting sprawl-induced commutes with a high-tech park-and-rides called Smart Stations.
• Columbus awarded $50 million in Smart City grants [The Columbus Dispatch]
• Smart City Challenge: 7 Proposals for the Future of Urban Transportation [Curbed.com]
• Is Austin as Smart as It Thinks It Is? We're About to Find Out [Curbed Austin]