As students head back to school, new round of funding from President Biden’s infrastructure law will make America’s roads safer for everyone, including pedestrians, cyclists, and those living in rural communities
Announcement is paired with release of NHTSA’s early estimates on traffic fatalities for first half of 2024, showing a 3.2 percent decline compared to the same period in 2023
Washington, D.C. – Today, U.S. Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg announced $32,375,304 in grants for Arkansas as part of $1 billion in grants through President Biden’s Bipartisan Infrastructure Law for the Safe Streets and Roads for All (SS4A) program. The funding will go directly to 354 local, regional, and tribal communities across the country, including nine in Arkansas, to improve roadway safety and prevent deaths and serious injuries on America’s rural and urban roads, including some of the most dangerous in the country.
Today’s 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. An estimated 18,720 people died in motor vehicle traffic crashes, a decrease of about 3.2 percent as compared to 19,330 fatalities projected to have occurred in the first half of 2023. Fatalities declined in both the first and second quarters of 2024.
Even with road fatalities decreasing over the past nine quarters straight, they remain far too high. Over 40,000 people have died on U.S. roads in each of the last three years, and a disproportionate number of people are killed in rural areas or while walking or bicycling. Additionally, traffic fatalities remain a leading cause of death for school-aged children and young adults.
“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 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,” said U.S. Transportation Deputy Secretary Polly Trottenberg. “They know what is best, and this program leverages that local expertise to save lives.”
The Safe Streets and Roads for All program provides grants directly to communities for implementation, planning, and demonstration projects aimed at preventing deaths and serious injuries on the nation’s roadways. Since launching in 2022, SS4A has funded projects in more than 1,400 communities, supporting roadway safety for nearly 75% of the U.S. population.
Additionally, SS4A is making historic investments in rural and underserved communities, and many of this year’s awards will address critical safety hot spots on some of the country’s most dangerous roads. The projects and activities aim to improve safety for all roadway users, including drivers, passengers, pedestrians and students heading back to school, bicyclists, transit users, and people with disabilities.
With this round of announced awards:
Rural communities comprise around half of all SS4A grant award recipients to date.
682 SS4A communities (43% of award recipients) have populations under 50,000.
793 SS4A award recipients (50% of all recipients to date) were new direct Federal funding recipients to USDOT.
Over half of SS4A funds will benefit underserved communities, providing equitable investment to places that need funding the most.
View a fact sheet on today’s awards here. Communities and projects being awarded funding in Arkansas this round include:
The City of Little Rock was awarded $25,000,000 for the Little Rock Safe Streets For All project to make improvements to five major corridors along its high-injury network. The City’s Local Road Safety Plan highlighted pedestrians accounted for 31% of roadway fatalities in Little Rock for the 2017-2021 period. To address these safety issues, this project will incorporate more than 20 of FHWA’s Proven Safety Countermeasures, including implementing bicycle lanes, crosswalk visibility enhancements, medians and pedestrian refuge islands, road diets, corridor access management, dedicated left- and right-turn lanes at intersections, roundabouts, safety edges and wider edge lines, retroreflective backplates, and lighting enhancements.
The City of Springdale was awarded $5,187,280 for the Dean's Trail Phase IIIB project to construct a multi-use trail segment. The trail segment (Phase IIIB) is the last section to complete Dean's Trail. Dean's Trail connects to the Razorback Greenway, considered to be a backbone of active transportation, spanning 40 miles and connecting seven cities. TThe current gap in the trail network is a safety issue requiring trails users to travel along four lane high speed arterial roadways without facilities to accommodate cyclists. This project completes an important multi-use trail loop to separate pedestrians and cyclists from motor vehicle traffic and closing the gap in reginal active transportation facilities.
Arkansas also received $2,188,024 for seven safety planning and demonstration projects.
