The Intelligent Transportation Society of America, IBM and Spencer Trask Collaborative Innovations are looking for innovative ideas for combating transportation congestion as part of a new global challenge.


"The average metropolitan commuter in the U.S. spends nearly a full work week stuck in traffic each year, wasting precious time and fuel and impacting the environment, safety conditions on roads, and economic productivity to the tune of more than one percent of GDP," said Scott Belcher, president and CEO of ITS America. "Allowing congestion to grind cities, suburbs and supply chains to a halt every morning and afternoon is unacceptable when we have innovative tools, technologies, and strategies available to manage our transportation systems and utilize our infrastructure more effectively."

During the ITS Congestion Challenge, participants, which may include entrepreneurs, commuters, transportation experts, researchers, universities and citizens, will compete to provide creative ideas to reducing congestion and its impact on the economy, environment and quality of life.

Participants will work together as an open community to improve upon ideas and vote for the best solutions. The open global community will rate ideas to determine the winner, who will receive $50,000 in a cash investment as well as the development and implementation support to make the idea come to fruition. The results will be announced at the 16th World Congress on Intelligent Transportation Systems in Stockholm, Sweden, Sept. 21-25, 2009.

More info: www.itsa.org/challenge.