Traffic is so bad in Houston, state transportation officials are poised to spend $18 million over the next three years to tell thousands of travelers to leave for work later, take a different route to the store or perhaps hop on an electric bike to make it to that downtown meeting.

Buoyed by a $8.9 million federal grant, the Houston district of the Texas Department of Transportation is proceeding with a three-year test of a system, dubbed ConnectSmart, that will combine real-time traffic information, analyses of typical travel times, transit and ride-sharing information and even bicycling and walking options. The information and the various options then will be available via a smartphone app, websites and message signs along local highways.

Plans are in their infancy, and officials could not say when any of the offerings would debut.

The goal is a one-stop digital platform for residents to assess their transportation options and make a decision about what to do. Danny Perez, spokesman for TxDOT in Houston, said that in turn "will incentivize them to make better commute decisions."

Area drivers, however, have been slow to embrace options other than solo driving, and the most recent data indicates solo commuting trips by automobile are increasing. Based on the most comprehensive Census Bureau data - using an average of five years worth of survey responses - 78.9 percent of Harris County workers drove alone to work in 2014, up from 77 percent in 2009. The percentage of commuters choosing carpools and public transit, meanwhile, declined, even as population gains meant increases in terms of number of people hopping on buses or pedaling to work.

The growth in total travel around the region, while not changing how people make those trips, poses problems. The Houston region's 25,000 miles of roadway handled 173 million miles of travel each day, which Perez said "wastes time and money" because cars and trucks clog the highways.

"Compounding the congestion problem is poor air quality," Perez said.

Correcting traffic congestion and air quality, in many cities including Houston, is falling more on data and connecting people with more choices. TxDOT's plan for Houston will combine researchers at Texas A&M Transportation Institute, the Center for Transportation Research at the University of Texas at Austin and the University of Arizona. Four private companies - Metropia, Moovel, RubyRide and Rocket Electrics - also are part of the test. The companies will coordinate their products to predict options for travelers and provide information on how people can take advantage of their options.

Specifics of what exactly each company will do is not determined. Metropia,which is also used by TxDOT in El Paso, predicts traffic congestion by analyzing current conditions, giving drivers not real-time information, but future-time information. Moovel, meanwhile, combines a number of options on a map so a user can compare both the price and time associated with various types of travel, such as private vehicle, transit and bicycling.

The other two companies involved provide a distinct type of travel. RubyRide, based in Phoenix, is a subscription-based car service. A monthly subscription allows someone unlimited rides, with other plans tailored specifically to businesses and even medical facilities to help transport patients to doctor appointments.

Austin-based Rocket Electric builds electrical bicycles. The company did not return calls for comment on what role it would have in Houston.

Cycling, however, is expected to increase in Houston, as people adjust to shorter trips around more dense housing and job centers. Already, suburban communities such as The Woodlands and Sugar Land are looking closely at cycling amenities for recreation and routine trips.

During a recent discussion of funding for alternatives to driving at the Houston-Galveston Area Council, Clark Martinson, executive director of the Energy Corridor District and a cycling advocate, said some of the most common sense investments are sensible and safe ways for bikes and cars to coexist.

"The funding should be there to make these connections beneath highways," Martinson said.

Houston drivers, however, said they were wary more travel information or electric bikes would lure them from their car. Taking a walk outside his Gulfton area office, Rick Pendergast, 60, of Sugar Land, said too much attention is paid to try to move people out of their cars, to the detriment of needed road projects.

"You can't make people change," Pendergast said. "And while they do all of this, most of us are stuck in traffic."

Many elected officials around the region have given full-throated support to highway expansion while opposing long-term mass transit between Houston and its suburbs.

Meanwhile, efforts to manage traffic enjoy support - and sizable funding - from Washington transportation officials. Half the money for Houston's upcoming efforts comes from a competitive Federal Highway Administration grant aimed at using new innovations to curb vehicle congestion. The $8.9 million coming to Houston was part of $56.6 million in grants federal officials announced Oct. 13.