Baltimore City Wire

This grant will support the development of a comprehensive safety action plan to help prevent roadway deaths and serious injuries

The Baltimore City Department of Transportation’s (BCDOT) Interim Director Corren Johnson announced that the City of Baltimore was awarded a Safe Streets and Roads for All (SS4A) federal grant.

Under the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, the new SS4A program was established in 2022 with $5 billion in appropriated funds to be allocated over the next 5 years. The SS4A program funding supports regional, local and Tribal plans, projects, and strategies to prevent roadway deaths and serious injuries.

The $1,005,453 SS4A grant awarded to the City of Baltimore will be used by the Department of Transportation to expand its recently completed Strategic Highway Safety Plan into a more comprehensive Toward Zero Action Plan. The expanded plan will include robust data-driven implementation priorities to improve safety on city roadways, along with concept designs for specific high-priority locations. The Action Plan will also include livability impact analysis to ensure compliance with the USDOT SS4A program and measurable performance metrics to track progress over time.

“As we work towards our goal of eliminating roadway fatalities and serious injuries in Baltimore City, this grant will allow us to develop and implement a comprehensive Action Plan for a safer transportation network,” said Interim Director Corren Johnson. “Because of this funding, city roadways will become safer for everyone, especially pedestrians, cyclists and other vulnerable users.”

BCDOT’s Action Plan will focus upon the experiences of pedestrians, bicyclists, scooter-riders, and those taking transit, and will prioritize interventions in areas of the City that experience disproportionate traffic fatalities and serious injuries. Through BCDOT’s initial analysis, traffic violence is most likely to occur in areas of the City where residents are less likely to own personal vehicles, are lower income, and have higher rates of disability. The Action Plan will chart a path for BCDOT to make equitable traffic safety improvements that protect and expand access for Baltimore’s most vulnerable roadway users.

In development of the Action Plan, the BCDOT will partner with world-renowned academic experts in transportation safety from the University of Maryland and Morgan State University, as well as public health experts from the Johns Hopkins University. These strategic partnerships will help guide the Action Plan to reach our goal of zero serious and fatal crashes on Baltimore City streets.

The SS4A Action Plan will also provide the opportunity for effective positive public health messaging around transportation, including comprehensive communication strategies and engagement with the public. The creation of this Action Plan will in turn make the City eligible for millions of dollars in federal funding for Safe Streets for all future project implementation.

Original source can be found here.