The U.S. Department of Transportation (USDOT) issued a Notice of Funding Opportunity (NOFO) for the Safe Streets and Roads for All (SS4A) discretionary grant program. This new five-year, $5 billion program has up to $1 billion available in fiscal year 2022 (FY22). The SS4A program funds regional and local initiatives through grants to prevent roadway deaths and serious injuries and supports the National Roadway Safety Strategy goal of zero deaths and serious injuries on the nation’s roadways. This program was established in the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law (BIL).
Eligible applicants include municipal governments, county governments, special district governments, metropolitan planning organizations, and multijurisdictional groups comprised of the above entities.
Action Plan Grants and Implementation Grants are available under this NOFO. The following activities are eligible for the SS4A program: to develop or update a comprehensive safety action plan (Action Plan); conduct planning, design, and development activities in support of an Action Plan; and carry out projects and strategies identified in an Action Plan.
Action Plan Grant Example activities
Below are illustrative examples, provided by USDOT, of activities that could directly assist in the process of developing or updating an Action Plan by conducting outreach, data collection, analysis, and other related tasks.
- Leadership commitment and goal setting that includes a goal timeline for eliminating roadway fatalities and serious injuries.
- Planning structure through a committee, task force, implementation group, or similar body charged with oversight of the Action Plan development, implementation, and monitoring.
- Safety analyses of the existing conditions and historical trends that provide a baseline level of crashes involving fatalities and serious injuries across a jurisdiction, locality, or region.
- Engagement and collaboration with the public and relevant stakeholders, including the private sector and community groups, that allows for community representation and feedback.
- Equity considerations developed through a plan using inclusive and representative processes.
- Policy and process changes that assess the current policies, plans, guidelines, and/or standards to identify opportunities to improve how processes prioritize transportation safety.
- Strategy and project selections that identify a comprehensive set of projects and strategies, shaped by data, the best available evidence and noteworthy practices, as well as stakeholder input and equity considerations, that will address the safety problems described in the Action Plan.
- Progress and transparency methods that measure progress over time after an Action Plan is developed or updated, including outcome data.
Implementation Grant Example Activities
Below are illustrative examples, provided by USDOT, of activities that could be conducted as part of an Implementation Grant. This list is not intended to be exhaustive in nature and could include infrastructural, behavioral, and operational safety activities identified in an Action Plan.
- Applying low-cost roadway safety treatments system-wide, such as left- and right-turn lanes at intersections, centerline and shoulder rumble strips, wider edge lines, high-friction surface treatments, road diets, and better signage along high-crash urban and rural corridors.
- Identifying and correcting common risks across a network, such as improving pedestrian crosswalks by adding high-visibility pavement markings, lighting, and signage at transit stops in a designated neighborhood or along a busy public transportation route.
- Transforming a roadway corridor on a High-Injury Network into a Complete Street with safety improvements to control speed, separate users, and improve visibility, along with other measures that improve safety for all users.
- Installing pedestrian safety enhancements and closing network gaps with sidewalks, rectangular rapid-flashing beacons, signal improvements, and audible pedestrian signals for people walking, rolling, or using mobility assisted devices.
- Working with community members in an identified problem area to carry out quick-build street design changes informed by outreach and user input.
- Supporting the development of bikeway networks with bicycle lanes for different roadway volumes and speeds that are safe for people of all ages and abilities.
- Carrying out speed management strategies such as implementing traffic calming road design changes, addressing speed along key corridors through infrastructure, conducting education and outreach, setting appropriate speed limits, and making strategic use of speed safety cameras.
- Creating safe routes to school and public transit services?through multiple activities that lead to people safely walking, biking, and rolling in underserved communities.
- Promoting the adoption of innovative technologies or strategies to promote safety and protect vulnerable road users in high-traffic areas where commercial motor vehicles (CMVs), pedestrians, bicyclists, motorcyclists, etc. interact.
- Conducting education campaigns to accompany new or innovative infrastructure, such as roundabouts, pedestrian hybrid beacons, or pedestrian-only zones.
- Implementing standard and novel data collection and analysis technologies and strategies to better understand vulnerable road user (pedestrian/bicycle/ transit rider) network gaps and to collect exposure data.
- Deploying advanced transportation technologies, such as the installation of connected intersection-based safety solutions and vehicle-to-infrastructure (V2I) advisory speed limit systems (e.g., Intelligent Speed Assistance [ISA]).
- Combating roadway departure crashes through enhanced delineation, shoulder widening, rumble strips, and roadside safety improvements.
- Evaluating and improving the safety of intersections by considering innovative design changes, improved delineation, and advanced warning.
- Improving first responder services with improved crash data collection, formalizing street names and addresses, and enhancing emergency vehicle warning systems.
- Unifying and integrating safety data across jurisdictions where local agencies share their crash, roadway inventory, and traffic volume data to create an analytic data resource.
Please review the application instructions. USDOT is hosting several “How to Apply” webinars in June and previous instructional webinars are available for on-demand viewing. The application deadline is September 15, 2022.
Contact: Paul Penna, Senior Legislative Analyst, ppenna@njlm.org or 609-695-3481, x110.