On Thursday, the U.S. Department of Transportation announced it had awarded more than 350 grants totaling more than $1 billion for safe streets and local roads.
The funding, part of the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law’s Safe Streets and Roads for All (SS4A) program, will go directly to 354 local, regional and tribal communities to improve road safety and prevent fatalities and injuries on the nation’s rural and urban roads.
“Through new funding programs like Safe Streets and Roads for All, the Biden-Harris Administration is helping communities of all sizes make their roadways safer for everyone who uses them,” said U.S. Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg. “We should be energized by the fact that together we’ve reduced traffic fatalities for more than two years in a row now – but so much work remains to fully address the crisis on our roads. Today’s roadway safety grants will deliver funding directly to 354 communities and continue the important work we’re doing to reduce traffic fatalities to the only number that’s acceptable: zero.”
The announcement was made in conjunction with a report from the National highway Traffic Safety Administration’s National Roadway Safety Strategy report that estimates traffic fatalities have declined in the United States for the ninth straight quarter. An estimated 18,720 people died in motor vehicle traffic accidents in the first half of 2024, compared to 19,330 in the first half of 2023, a decrease of about 3.2 percent.
The USDOT said almost half of all the SS4A grant award recipients were rural communities, with 43 percent of the communities having populations under 50,000.
Awards included $483,000 for the Town of Boiling Springs, North Carolina, was awarded $483,000 for demonstration project on roads and at intersection to increase road safety; $29.8 million for Los Angeles County, CA, for safety improvements at 77 intersections; and $20.3 million for the Coushatta Tribe of Louisiana to reconstruct Powell Road, a two-lane road that serves as the main access road to the tribal community.
“The SS4A program gives local and tribal governments the resources to plan and implement the safety improvements that will make the most difference in their communities,” U.S. Transportation Deputy Secretary Polly Trottenberg said. “They know what is best, and this program leverages that local expertise to save lives.”