Alliance for Transportation Innovation Opens Its Doors

WASHINGTON, DC--(Marketwired - Jun 16, 2016) - Local business leaders today announced the formation of the Alliance for Transportation Innovation (ATI21), a consortium of transportation technology companies, advocates and subject matter experts dedicated to increasing public and stakeholder awareness of the transformative improvements that can be realized through the accelerated development and deployment of innovative transportation technologies.

"The technology exists to dramatically improve the safe and efficient movement of people and goods from origin to destination across all modes," said Paul Brubaker, Chairman of ATI21, and a former transportation executive with three decades of senior level government policy and private sector management experience focused on deploying innovative technologies across government and industries. "ATI21 was created to accelerate the deployment of transportation innovations and technologies that will dramatically improve the safe and efficient movement of people and goods through research, technology demonstrations, educational programs, and media outreach."

Transportation in the United States represents the second largest household expense and impacts every American with over 300 million residents using the nation's transportation system daily, according to the U.S. Department of Transportation (USDOT). But it's not all about moving people. The U.S. transportation system moves more than 54 million tons of goods worth nearly $48 billion each day, or almost 63 tons of freight per person per year.

Brubaker served as the second Administrator of the Research and Innovative Technology Administration at the USDOT and was Chairman of the Center for Innovative Technology. A number of well-known technology policy executives and former government officials join him on the Advisory Board. They include:

• Bob Walker, former Chairman of the House Science Committee, U.S. House of Representatives and current Executive Chairman of Wexler-Walker, who will serve as Chairman of the Advisory Board
• Chris Carlson, Founder of IOEDNA Incorporated
• Bob Suda, former Director of the USDOT's Volpe National Transportation Research Center and now CEO, Suda and Associates
• Thomas Marchessault, former Associate Administrator for Research and Technology, USDOT
• Jill Hochman, former Senior Executive Director of Interstate and Border Planning, USDOT
• Sateesh Kumar, former Innovation Executive for IoT and Transportation, Cisco Systems.
  
  

"Our goal is to focus our efforts on understanding the innovations and technologies available today -- and those emerging from research and industry -- to promote the social and economic benefits of deploying these technologies. Concurrently, we are working to develop a coordinated and systematic approach to overcoming the legal, regulatory, and policy challenges that slow the development and deployment of innovations. Ideally, this will create the conditions required to speed the realization of a dramatically safer, responsive, accessible, and resilient transportation system that is fitting for the 21st century," added Brubaker.

ATI21 is collaborating with industry leaders in the innovative transportation space, such as the Consumer Technology Association (CTA). "CTA has a longstanding commitment to promoting innovation across all industry sectors, and we're witnessing the development and deployment of dramatic innovation across the transportation space that will profoundly impact safety, efficiency, and accessibility. We're looking forward to collaborating with ATI21 to further our mutual objective of transforming transportation through innovation," said Gary Shapiro, President and CEO of CTA.

ATI21 is due to kick off its 2016 Transportation Innovators Speaker Series in July in Washington, D.C. Plans are currently underway for the Global Innovators in Transportation Summit and Awards Gala in May 2017.

ABOUT ATI21 (ATI21.org)
The Alliance for Transportation Innovation (ATI21) is a consortium of transportation technology companies, advocates, and subject matter experts dedicated to increasing public and stakeholder awareness of the transformative safety, sociological, and economic improvements that can be realized through the accelerated development and deployment of ingenious transportation technologies. ATI21 will raise awareness, advocate for, and establish the conditions required to accelerate the deployment of transportation innovations and technologies necessary to build the transportation system of the 21^st century and beyond through a series of educational programs, research, and media outreach.