Safe Streets and Roads for All

A New Wave of Funding for Local and Tribal Roadway Safety Innovation

A first-of-its-kind discretionary grant program called Safe Streets and Roads for All (SS4A) is helping local communities design and deliver comprehensive roadway safety plans and improvements that will save lives and prevent serious injuries on the Nation’s streets and roads. Created by the 2021 Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, SS4A has the potential to vastly improve safety for all road users by providing $5 billion over 5 years (fiscal years 2022–2026) directly to local and Tribal agencies to address their unique roadway safety needs.

“Through three announcements in 2023, SS4A grants have provided $1.7 billion in direct funding to over 1,000 local rural, Tribal, and urban communities,” said Paul Teicher, Senior Policy Analyst at the U.S. Department of Transportation (USDOT). “Combined, the awards made to date will improve roadway safety planning for around 70 percent of the Nation’s population.”

Two Ways to Access SS4A

SS4A funding is divided into two grant types. One is for safety action plan development, supplemental planning, and demonstration activities. The other is for plan implementation. Agencies are required to have safety action plans that meet specified criteria prior to applying for implementation funding.

“Under the SS4A FY 2024 Notice of Funding Opportunity, more than $656 million is available for Planning and Demonstration Grants,” said FHWA SS4A Team Leader Jason Broehm. “These funds can support development of new Action Plans, supplemental planning activities such as developing a speed management plan or lighting plan, and demonstration activities such as feasibility studies using quick-build activities.”

“In the previous funding round, the vast majority of eligible Planning and Demonstration Grant applicants received grant awards,” said Broehm.

Action Plans and Demonstration Activities

For SS4A, comprehensive safety action plans are developed using a data-driven approach to identify roadway safety challenges and help agencies systematically prioritize safety projects and strategies to be implemented over time, tracking progress along the way.

SS4A funding is helping communities address roadway safety through a comprehensive Safe System Approach that uses several complementary types of interventions aligned with the objectives in USDOT’s National Roadway Safety Strategy: safer people, safer roads, safer vehicles, safer speeds, and post-crash care.

Examples include Belgrade, MT, which is developing a safety action plan and testing crosswalk visibility enhancements, and Gering, NE, which is creating a safe streets action plan and piloting the use of rectangular rapid flashing beacons (RRFBs) on arterial pedestrian crossings. Crosswalk visibility enhancements and RRFBs were included in Every Day Counts (EDC) round 5 through the Safe Transportation for Every Pedestrian (STEP) initiative. Deerfield Beach, FL, will use its grant to implement a temporary-build Road Diet, a strategy included in EDC round 3, by using pavement markings and tubular markers to create a median, center turn lane, and buffered bicycle lane.

In West Hartford, CT, the number of fatal and serious injury crashes has more than doubled over the past 4 years, so the town pursued SS4A funding to pilot a speed safety camera (SSC) program as part of its Vision Zero initiative. West Hartford will use its award to install fixed SSCs at 15 locations. When deployed as fixed units, SSCs can reduce crashes on urban principal arterials up to 54 percent.

The town of Colonie, NY, received an SS4A grant to support a technology-driven safety initiative focused on crash prevention and post-crash care. Colonie’s emergency medical services (EMS) department partnered with police and neighboring EMS agencies to pilot a system that alerts drivers to the presence of nearby emergency vehicles at crash scenes as well as a software platform that aids responders in treating crash victims.

Opportunities for Implementation

Communities are using the SS4A Implementation Grants to help fund safety projects and strategies they have identified as their most pressing safety problems.

The Lexington-Fayette Urban County Government in Kentucky is using SS4A funds to implement safety upgrades on the highest fatal and serious injury corridor identified in its Action Plan. In underserved communities on this corridor, many crashes occur due to the lack of safe multimodal transportation options. Planned upgrades include innovations promoted in past rounds of EDC such as restricted crossing U-turns and raised pedestrian crossing islands, as well as improved lighting, which is currently being promoted through EDC-7.

Jonesboro, AR, received implementation funding for projects in two roadway corridors to improve pedestrian and driver safety in underserved Census tracts. The first project includes adding crosswalk visibility enhancements and pedestrian hybrid beacons on a busy portion of four-lane highway where children account for much of the pedestrian activity. The second project will install LED streetlights along a 2.4-mile stretch of roadway that accounts for 11 percent of the city’s nighttime pedestrian fatalities. The improved lighting is expected to benefit the safety of both pedestrians and drivers within the project limits.

Webster County, IA, will improve the safety of 32.5 miles of rural county roads that have been identified as high-risk locations for crashes and fatalities. The project aims to reduce the number and severity of the county’s most prevalent crash type—improper lane departures—by implementing Proven Safety Countermeasures such as widening and paving shoulders and adding edge and center line rumble strips.

Access the full award lists of fiscal year 2022 and 2023 grants to learn how more agencies are using SS4A funds to improve safety for all road users.

Ride the Wave of SS4A

SS4A is continuing to advance many of the innovations promoted by the EDC program. Applications are now being accepted for the next round of SS4A funding. Agencies can visit the SS4A website for more information about the program, eligibility details, and tips on how to how to apply.