Cohen Announces Over $1.4 Million for MATA

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Congressman Steve Cohen (D-TN-9) today announced that the Federal Transit Administration, a division of the U.S. Department of Transportation, has awarded more than $1.4 million in combined grants to the Memphis Area Transit Authority. These grants will provide MATA with the resources to study transit improvement alternatives on the Madison Avenue corridor and to install a traffic-signal priority system on Poplar Avenue and Elvis Presley Boulevard.

“Madison Avenue is one of the core arteries of Memphis, connecting Downtown and the Medical Center with Midtown and Cooper-Young,” said Congressman Cohen. “This study will help MATA determine the best way to keep Madison Avenue convenient and accessible to all riders, drivers, bicyclists, and pedestrians. The new federal funds will also establish a transit signal priority system for Poplar Avenue and Elvis Presley Boulevard, helping alleviate traffic in the process.”

The first grant, worth $800,000, will fund a transit alternatives analysis of the Madison Avenue corridor, which connects Downtown Memphis with Midtown Memphis. The study will explore the possibility of integrating high capacity transit with pedestrian and bike improvements to create a multimodal corridor that would accommodate a host of transportation alternatives, reflecting the wide array of businesses, hospitals, and entertainment venues along the four mile stretch of the corridor.

The second grant, worth $644,000, will finance a transit signal priority system for the two highest ridership corridors in the MATA system, Poplar Avenue and Elvis Presley Boulevard. Poplar Avenue has forty-five traffic signals along its length within Memphis; Elvis Presley Boulevard has twenty-seven. The grant award also includes funding for a GPS-based traffic signal priority system for the Downtown Trolley.