• To help put residents at the center of the mobility conversation, Indianapolis is linking up with Ford Motor Company to launch the City:One Challenge, a community program to explore local transportation needs and collaborate on solutions that will help improve future mobility in the city .
• Ford and local community collaborators will provide up to $100,000 for the testing of promising ideas through a pilot program.
• The Indianapolis City:One Challenge will focus on improving the mobility experience for residents, commuters and travelers, enhancing access, quality of life and affordability.

Indianapolis, March 19, 2019 – Ford and the City of Indianapolis are launching the Indianapolis City:One Challenge, a co-creation and crowdsourcing program for residents, businesses and community groups to propose and pilot solutions that improve mobility.

As cities like Indianapolis evolve and new technologies take shape, the way people move around is changing. Locally, city leaders are looking to encourage more people to use public transit by making it more accessible, efficient and affordable. With the Indianapolis Public Transportation Corporation, or IndyGo, the city aims to direct economic growth by building an inclusive and optimal mobility system through investments that improve transit service hours, update fare systems and introduce rapid transit this year.

The City:One Challenge is designed to complement the city’s efforts by facilitating a collaborative process with the community, offering residents the opportunity to share their experiences and suggest ideas for how to solve their most pressing mobility problems. The goal is to help improve the quality of life for Indianapolis residents and visitors through dynamic mobility options that complement the existing transportation system.

“Through this public-private partnership, residents will have the opportunity to weigh in on the future of public transportation in Indianapolis, making recommendations that will ultimately affect how they get to and from where they live, work and play,” said Indianapolis Mayor Joe Hogsett. “A thriving city needs public transit that is reliable, affordable, and accessible to all, and we come much closer to these goals when we successfully engage the community and stakeholders in the conversation.”

Throughout the eight-month City:One Challenge program, those who live, work and play in Indianapolis are invited to explore dynamic mobility options focused around their top needs. Ford and Challenge partners also will assist with the community collaboration process and help support the challenge prize of up to $100,000 to fund pilots that test the top solutions.

Indianapolis is the first city to launch the City:One Challenge in 2019. Each challenge is tailored to the specific city or county and is focused on addressing its unique needs.

“At Ford, we believe that to fix mobility and transportation problems in a city, we must focus on one person, one solution at a time. When focusing on the individual, we can start to solve larger problems that affect the entire city and create greater access for everyone,” said Jeff Jones, vice president, Ford City Solutions. “That’s why it’s so important for everyone in the community to participate – our goal is to really understand the unique needs of Indianapolis by engaging residents, community groups and businesses in a way that leads to real improvement.”

Ford launched its city challenge platform in 2018 with Pittsburgh, Miami-Dade County and Grand Rapids, Mich. The three challenges resulted in ongoing pilots addressing issues ranging from long, inefficient student pickup lines at schools to safer transportation methods for night shift workers who must travel during non-traditional hours.

How it works – and how to get involved

Starting today, Indianapolis residents interested in participating can go to the City: One Challenge website to share their mobility experiences and sign up for community working sessions. Ford and its collaborators will combine insights from online submissions and the community workshops with advanced data analytics to help shape the issues explored by the Challenge.

The first community workshop will take place on April 17 at the John H. Boner Community Center, from 5:30 to 8:00 p.m. Other workshop dates will be announced in the future. Community members, businesses, startups and innovators can begin submitting ideas for new mobility solutions to the biggest challenges Indianapolis travelers face the week of May 29.

In August, a committee of city officials, community stakeholders and corporate collaborators will select semifinalists to attend a prototyping session and receive mentoring support to refine their ideas before submitting a final pilot proposal. Finally, a panel of judges working with Indianapolis city officials, Ford and its corporate collaborators will award up to $100,000 to fund pilots to test the top proposed solutions.