Five major cities have been selected as the first to participate in a U.S. Department of Transportation (USDOT) initiative aimed at reducing traffic congestion. Miami, Minneapolis, New York, San Francisco and Seattle will receive a total of more than $848 million to explore the use of congestion pricing, transit, tolling and teleworking to lower the number of cars on the roads.

The five cities were selected after an eight-month competition between 26 applicants to join USDOT’s Urban Partnership program. “These communities have committed to fighting congestion now,” said U.S. Transportation Secretary Mary Peters in a statement. “Our commitment was to allocate the federal contribution in a lump sum … to get these projects off the drawing board and into action.”