By Jill Dunn
Nine of American most congested cities are semifinalists for a federal $1.1 billion to fight traffic jams.

The U.S. Department of Transportation will consider Urban Partnership proposals from Atlanta, Dallas, Denver, Minneapolis-St. Paul, Miami, New York City, San Diego, San Francisco and Seattle, U.S. Transportation Secretary Mary Peters announced at a New York City news conference June 7.

Here asking cities to try something different, innovative and daring when it comes to fighting traffic,?Peters said. In the next few weeks, we will work with New York and the other eight cities to further evaluate their traffic fighting plans to see if they reduce traffic now ?not years from now ?and have the ideas, the support and the will to do what it takes to reduce congestion.?
These nine cities represent one-third of all congestion in the top 85 metro areas of the United States and are home to one-fifth of all the travel in the nation, Peters said.

The applications all propose to levy tolls that vary based on traffic volumes and to improve mass-transit options for locals, Peters said.

In addition to funding, the DOT will help winning proposals with technical advice and an expedited review process, she said.