By Staff Reports
(HONOLULU) – The City and County of Honolulu’s Department of Transportation Services (DTS) and Honolulu Complete Streets are pleased to acknowledge the award of $3.45 million in federal grant funding to help improve roadway safety and ensure safer streets for all on the island of Oʻahu.
U.S. Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg announced the award of $172 million in grants to 257 communities through the Safe Streets and Roads for All (SS4A) program, which was created as part of President Joe Biden’s Bipartisan Infrastructure Law. This is the third and final round of awards that will be announced this year through the community-guided grant program, which is a key component of the National Roadway Safety Strategy.
257 communities across the nation received this discretionary funding for planning and demonstration projects to help prevent deaths and serious injuries on America’s rural and urban roads, including some of the most dangerous roads in the country — with the goal being to ultimately make communities more connected and walkable.
The entire recipient list can be found here: https://www.transportation.gov/grants/ss4a/2024-awards.
The SS4A program supports the development of a comprehensive safety action plan (referred to as an “Action Plan”) that identifies the most significant roadway safety concerns in a community and the implementation of projects and strategies to address roadway safety issues. Action Plans are the foundation of the SS4A grant program, and demonstration activities inform Action Plans by testing proposed project and strategy approaches to determine future benefits.
With Oʻahu’s Vision Zero Action Plan, the City is committed to ending traffic violence on the island. Vision Zero is a multi-faceted strategy to eliminate all fatalities, severe injuries, and traffic violence on our roadways while increasing safe, healthy, and equitable transportation choices for all.
The City’s $3.45 million SS4A award will fund safety demonstration improvements at 50 uncontrolled crosswalk and signalized intersection locations that experience the highest number of crashes across Oʻahu. The project will install short-term, low-cost, and scalable safety interventions to effect immediate and long-term change related to traffic crashes. The City will identify which safety improvements most effectively address specific safety challenges under various conditions, using the findings to inform future investments in permanent infrastructure upgrades.
“Our residents island-wide demand safer streets and safer crossings,” said DTS Deputy Director Jon Nouchi. “Through the initiative of our DTS team who applied for and brought this money home to the City and County of Honolulu, we will implement immediate safety solutions to reduce injurious crashes at our most critical intersections and roadways.”
DTS, through their Complete Streets program, will improve pedestrian and micro-mobility safety at high-injury locations across Oʻahu. Some of these improvements will include solar-powered rectangular rapid flashing beacons (RRFB), pedestrian refuge islands, curb extensions, raised crosswalks and other quick-build solutions.