Hundreds of cities and counties across the U.S. will receive a share of over $800 million in federal grants to improve the safety of streets and intersections through funding that the U.S. Department of Transportation announced Wednesday. Florida will receive $67 million of that funding to improve roads.
The competitive grants include nearly $590 million to carry out 37 projects making physical safety improvements to roadways in 22 states. An additional nearly $213 million is being distributed in smaller increments for hundreds of traffic safety planning efforts across the country.
Three awards will be given to Florida during the first round of the program, according to a statement released on Feb. 1.
- $20 million for T-SAFE: Tampa – Systemic Applications for Equity (Tampa, FL): On average, 44 people die and 289 experience life-altering injuries on Tampa roads annually. This project will address safety concerns by installing pedestrian mid-block crosswalks, backplates with reflective borders, flashing beacons, high visibility crosswalks, and signage enhancements along the city’s road network. Tampa will also install new sidewalks and implement new safety measures – like street light upgrades, separated bike lanes, and school speed zone flashers -- near several schools, parks, and transit routes.
- $19.7 million for Hillsborough County’s “Data Driven Equitable Transportation Safety Programs” (Hillsborough County, FL): Hillsborough County has the highest traffic fatality rate per capita among large counties in the US. This award will help the county implement solutions to improve safety for pedestrians, bicyclists, transit users, and drivers at 22 locations throughout the county by installing proven safety countermeasures like sidewalks, curb bulb-outs, bike lanes, and speed management strategies.
- $8 million for the “Completing a City’s Primary Street” Project (Gainesville, FL): The City of Gainesville seeks to convert 4.15 miles of University Avenue – currently a hotspot for pedestrian and bicyclist crashes – into a fully redesigned Complete Street. The project scope includes narrowing and repurposing vehicle lanes from four lanes to two lanes; converting undivided segments to divided roadways; and installing a buffered two-way cycle track, among other improvements.
The grants are the first under the Safe Streets and Roads for All program, which ultimately will provide $5 billion over five years. The program was part of the federal infrastructure law passed by Congress and signed by President Joe Biden in 2021.
Many Floridians across the state have voiced concerns about road safety, citing everything from road rage to traffic-stopping crashes to pedestrian fatalities.
Other states receiving funding include California, Georgia and Kentucky. The cities of Atlanta and Philadelphia will receive the largest grants, which total $30 million each.
Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg has said the U.S. faces a "national crisis of fatalities and serious injuries on our roadways."
Nearly 43,000 people are estimated to have died in vehicle traffic crashes in 2021 — an increase of nearly one-third over the past decade, according to data from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.
Data for the entirety of 2022 is not yet available, but estimates for the first nine months indicate that fatal traffic crashes appear to have leveled off or declined slightly. Still, they are significantly higher than levels that existed before the coronavirus pandemic.
Among states, estimated traffic fatalities in the first three-quarters of 2022 rose by the largest percentage in Hawaii, Delaware, Nebraska, Washington and Alaska. Traffic fatalities were down by the greatest rate in South Dakota and Rhode Island.
