Federal grants totaling around $65 million were given to communities throughout Florida to improve street safety for people who drive, cycle, or walk. On Wednesday, the U.S. Department of Transportation distributed roughly $800 million around the country as part of the grant awards for Safe Streets and Roads for All. The project provided funding for action planning and infrastructure work for the City of Tampa, Hillsborough County, Polk County, Sarasota County, Manatee County, Pinellas County, Hernando County, and the City of Port Richey.
Walking is becoming increasingly dangerous on the Tampa Bay area’s streets. The towns in Pinellas County, according to Forward Pinellas, the county’s land use and transportation planning organization, wish to make a list of the roads with a high injury rate. “A youngster was killed while crossing the street on St. Petersburg Drive in the town of Oldsmar, one of the cases.
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We recently had a horrible fatality of a person who was murdered while walking in a crosswalk in Dunedin, one of the other areas, “said Whit Blanton (Twitter), the organization’s executive director. The City of Tampa’s mobility planners concurs with the federal government in describing the number of traffic fatalities as a public health problem.
Alana Brasier, the head of the mobility department for the City of Tampa, stated, “I can tell you that in 2021, we saw 81 deaths, which was about double our regular year rate. “It wasn’t just us; that rise was observed across the country. There was a sharp spike in mortality everywhere.”
Federal grant cash totaling $20 million will be given to the City of Tampa.
“We’re going to focus the resources on our high injury network, which is where we see a higher prevalence of fatalities and severe injuries on our roads,” said Brasier.
She stated that in addition to focusing on its roads, the city would collaborate with the county and the state to improve pedestrian safety.
“Quick build treatments, so that’s more crosswalks, filling sidewalk gaps, adding bike lanes where needed, improving the street lighting,” said Brasier.
According to Forward Pinellas, the $559,000 federal payment for Pinellas County is significant. According to him, on average, two people die on the roadways every day.
“This is a smaller dollar amount to create the projects that we could then pursue either next year or in the year after, or we could prioritize through our own process using the funds we already get,” said Blanton.
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The objective is to identify and make safer the deadliest hotspots initially.
“We have had some good news lately in that some of our serious injury crashes have been declining and that’s good news. But the pedestrian and bicycle fatalities, in particular, have not been following that trend,” said Brasier.
For its action plans, Polk County will receive around $720,000, and Hillsborough County will receive about $19 million. The cities of Port Richey, Manatee, Hernando, and Sarasota will all receive varying amounts of funds for safer streets.
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