The U.S. Department of Transportation recently awarded the City of Austin, Texas, a $22.9 million Safe Streets and Roads for All grant.
“This grant will accelerate Austin’s ability to deliver life-saving infrastructure improvements to our community,” Mayor Kirk Watson said. “It is through a team effort that we will end the tragic and preventable fatalities and injuries on our roadway system.”
The Austin Transportation Department will use the funding to implement safety improvements at more than 60 locations. At least half of the funding will be allocated to underserved communities.
In 2022, 117 people died on Austin streets and hundreds more were seriously injured. Deaths and injuries were disproportionately from underserved communities.
The department plans to take a systemic approach to evaluate specific locations and treatments for safety improvements. It will evaluate the safety and equity impacts of engineering treatments and select context-specific tools such as added turning lanes, bicycle and pedestrian facilities, high-visibility crosswalks, medians, or traffic signal installations.
Austin’s Vision Zero safety initiatives have reduced severe crashes. Safety improvements on the city’s High-Injury Roadways have resulted in a 17 percent decrease in fatal and serious injury crashes, and a 31 percent reduction in the annual number of fatal or serious injury crashes at major intersections.