AASHTO Journal - USDOT Issues $63M in SS4A Grants to 99 Communities

The U.S. Department of Transportation recently issued over $63 million in grants through its “Safe Streets and Roads for All” or SS4A program to 99 local, regional, and tribal communities to help improve road safety nationwide; particularly for bicyclists and pedestrians.

[Above photo by the USDOT]

The agency said that represents the first of three rounds of SS4A awards that will be made in 2024, with the second one slated for August. In 2023, the USDOT said the SS4A program provided $1.7 billion in direct funding to over 1,000 local communities; supporting roadway safety for around 70 percent of the nation’s population.

“Bicyclists, pedestrians, and drivers should be safe on our roads and streets,” explained USDOT Secretary Pete Buttigieg in a statement. “Thanks to our ‘Safe Streets for All’ grants, communities across the country are improving their roads so they can be safely shared by bikes, cars, and pedestrians.”

He noted that the SS4A program aligns with the USDOT’s National Roadway Safety Strategy or NRSS – launched by agency in January 2022 – as it includes the development of road safety action plans and implementing effective interventions that help reduce crashes.

In February, the USDOT hosted a press event at its Washington, D.C., headquarters to highlight the progress made over the last two years on NRSS, especially in terms of improving road safety for localities across the country.

AASHTO’s Tymon at podium. Image via USDOT.

“This is not just a national safety issue – it is a national health crisis and we all share a role in driving down roadway fatalities,” noted Jim Tymon, executive director of the American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials, at that event. “We need to do everything in our power to reduce number of fatalities to zero.”

To that end, he noted that AASHTO hosted a national Safety Summit in 2023 in Kansas City, MO, to bring together state departments of transportation, federal agencies, local governments, and safety advocates to map out ways to improve roadway safety – with another such summit being planned for the fall of 2024.

“These summits are helping us come up with new safety strategies for roads and bridges – to take the different perspectives of all roadway users into account so we do not design roads and bridges in the same way we always have to ensure safety is integrated into everything we do,” Tymon said.