HR 7248 Introduced – STARTER Act

Way back in June Rep Graves (R,MO) introduced HR 7248, the Surface Transportation Advanced through Reform, Technology, and Efficient Review (STARTER) Act. The bill is effectively a Republican alternative to a highway authorization bill that has yet to be introduced by the Democrats. It includes three grant programs that could affect automated driving system development and deployment.

Advanced Technologies Grant Program

Section 6001 of the bill would add a new §520 to 23 USC Chapter 25. It would require DOT to “establish a program to provide grants to eligible entities to deploy, install, and operate advanced transportation technologies to improve safety, efficiency, system performance, mobility, intermodal connectivity, and infrastructure return on investment” {new §520(a)}.

The grant program would favor technology deployments that {new§520(b)}:

• Reduces costs and improves return on investments, including through the optimization of existing transportation capacity,
• Delivers environmental benefits by alleviating congestion and streamlining traffic flow,
• Measures and improves the operational performance of the applicable transportation net- work,
• Reduces the number and severity of traffic accidents and increases driver, passenger, and pedestrian safety,
• Collects, disseminates, and uses information on real-time traffic, work zone, weather, transit, paratransit, parking, and other transportation-related information to improve mobility, reduce congestion, and provide for more efficient, accessible, and integrated transportation and transportation services,
• Monitors transportation assets to improve infrastructure management, reduce maintenance costs, prioritize investment decisions, and ensure state of good repair,

• Delivers economic benefits by reducing delays, improving system performance, and providing for the efficient and reliable movement of goods and services, or

• Accelerates the deployment of vehicle-to-vehicle, vehicle-to-infrastructure, autonomous vehicles, and other technologies.

Among the allowable uses listed for this grant program are “cybersecurity protection measures and activities to protect against cybersecurity threats” {new §502(e)(15)}.

Connected Vehicle Deployment Grants

Section 6002 would add a new §521 to Chapter 5. This would require DOT to develop a grant program to “to spur operational deployments to meet the transportation needs of eligible entities through the use of the best available and emerging intelligent transportation systems” {new §521(a)(1)}. The goals of the grant program would be to {new §521(a)(2)}:

• Spur connected vehicle technology deployment through wirelessly connected vehicles that interact with a connected environment, including mobile devices, infrastructure, and other elements,

• Realize safety, mobility, and environmental impacts through operational deployments,

• Capture and use new forms of connected vehicle and mobile device data to support improved surface transportation system performance and enhanced performance-based management,

• Encourage partnerships of multiple stakeholders (including private companies, State and local agencies, transit agencies, commercial vehicle operators, freight shippers, and transportation network companies),

• Deploy applications using data captured from multiple sources (including vehicles, mobile devices, and infrastructure) across all elements of the surface transportation system (including transit, highway, arterial highways, parking facilities, and toll highways), and

• Support deployment sites that create foundations for future expanded and enhanced deployments

Automated Driving Systems Demonstration Grants

Section 6003 adds a new §522 to Chapter 5. It would require DOT to establish an automated driving system demonstration grant program. The program would be designed to {new §522(a)(1)}:

• Test the safe integration of automated driving system technologies into the on-road transportation system of the United States and demonstrate how challenges to the safe integration of such technologies can be addressed, and

• Encourage collaboration and partnerships of multiple stakeholders.

The grant program would also be required to {§522(a)(1)(B)}:

• A baseline of safety metrics needed to characterize the safety risk of integrating automated driving system technologies into the transportation system;

• A baseline for the safety of automated driving system technology integration; and

• A baseline of roadway characteristics needed for the safe and efficient operation of automated driving system technologies.

Paragraph (C) amends 23 USC 133(b), adding a new authorized use for the Surface transportation block grant program. That new use would be {new §133(b)(16)} “Capital and maintenance expenses for infrastructure improvements to ensure the proper and safe operation of automated driving system technologies for which a demonstration project was carried out under section 522.”

Moving Forward

Graves (and most of the 22 Republican cosponsors to the bill) is a member of the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee, one of the two committees to which this bill was assigned for consideration. While this would normally mean that the bill would have a good chance of being considered in the Committee, but this bill is a direct challenge to the Committee leadership’s ability to craft a consensus highway transportation authorization bill. This bill is not going anywhere.