Bay Area receives millions of fed dollars for safe corridors

The Bay Area received millions of dollars in Bipartisan Infrastructure Law for the Safe Streets and Roads for All (SS4A) program funding, the U.S. Department of Transportation announced Thursday.

The funding announcement — a key component of DOT’s comprehensive National Roadway Safety Strategy launched in 2022 — is paired with the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration’s release of its early estimates of traffic fatalities for the first half of 2024, estimating that traffic fatalities declined for the ninth straight quarter. 

“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."

In the Bay Area, funding included:

• $16 million, City of Alameda for the Lincoln/Marshall/Pacific Corridor Improvement Project, which will implement proven safety countermeasures along a 3-mile corridor on the city’s high-injury network. This project addresses the four primary collision factors that were responsible for almost 75% of crashes along the corridor from 2017 to 2021 — including improper turning, auto right-of-way violations, unsafe speeds, and traffic signal and sign violations — and improves bicycle and pedestrian safety. The corridor project implements road diets, continuous bicycle facilities, a roundabout, pedestrian beacons, pedestrian and bicycle signals, modernized traffic signals, crosswalk improvements, school frontage improvements, storm water gardens, disabled parking and loading zones, improved lighting, and bus stop enhancements. These improvements will close an existing active transportation gap, reduce speeding, provide safe bicycle and pedestrian facilities, and address key crash factors using countermeasures that have a proven record of reducing fatal and serious-injury crashes. 
• $11 million, City of Vacaville for Safe Streets for Vacaville. The funding will be used to implement roadway safety and multimodal improvements to facilitate access to key community destinations such as businesses, retail, health care clinics, and public amenities. The project will address two high-injury corridors within an area in the north part of the city that includes underserved Census tracts. The implementation portion of the project will provide safer connections across I-505, a highway through the north part of the city. Roundabouts and retroreflective backplates will address the high percentage of crashes in the project area that occur at intersections (52%) and in dark conditions (40%). A new separated bicycle/pedestrian path parallel to this corridor with enhanced crossings will reduce conflicts for pedestrians and bicyclists, where 100% of crashes involving a bicyclist or pedestrian occurred in a location without any bicycle facilities.  Supplemental planning includes an Equity Analysis and updates to the city’s ADA Transition Plan and Comprehensive Safety Action Plan. Demonstration activities include quick-build installations along another high-crash corridor, with a corresponding pilot educational campaign in the area to increase awareness of key safety issues, like speeding and vulnerable road users.
• $7 million, Sonoma-Marin Area Rail Transit District (SMART) to close a 4.73-mile gap in the SMART multi-use pathway that allows people to travel to, within, and between the communities and SMART rail stations along its passenger rail and pathway corridor. The additional pathway provides a safe, multimodal alternative to the parallel U.S. Interstate 101. The project area is in the City of Santa Rosa, the largest and most populus city in the county. The current gap in the SMART pathway forces people walking and biking onto the surrounding roadway network, which includes corridors and intersections that are part of Sonoma County’s high-injury network (HIN). There are seven HIN roadways and seven high-injury intersections within 1-mile of the project alignment. The project will complete an 18-mile continuous, protected, multi-use path between the Town of Windsor and the community of Penngrove in Sonoma County. The project also includes crossing improvements, like improved street and rail crossing signage, striping, and new/updated signals where the pathway intersects the roadway network. 
• $2.9 million, City of Milpitas for Milpitas Safe Routes to School. The funding will be used to implement systemic, citywide, pedestrian and cyclist safety improvements at 38 intersections in the vicinity of schools. The City of Milpitas is higher than the statewide average for crashes involving intersections, aggressive driving, and vulnerable road users. In recent years there have been numerous crashes involving people walking and biking on the city’s school route network. A closer look at the citywide crash data reveals that 49% of the bike and pedestrian crashes (68 out of 138) took place along the city's school routes and within locations included in the school safety study, with a significant portion resulting in fatal or severe injuries. Improvements include warning beacons, speed feedback signs, safety lighting, raised medians and pedestrian refuge islands, ADA curb ramps and bulb-outs, advanced stop bars, restriping, raised pavement markers, pedestrian barricades, and signage. The city will also conduct supplemental planning to update its 2011 Safe Routes to School plan.