Today, U.S. Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg announced that the City of Cape May has been awarded a $200,000 grant to fund roadway safety planning.
The grant is from the new USDOT Safe Streets and Roads for All Grant Program funded by the Bipartisan Infrastructure Act. The competitive grant program provides $5 billion over five years for initiatives — from redesigned roads to better sidewalks and crosswalks — to prevent deaths and serious injuries on the nation’s roadways.
Mayor Zack Mullock stated, “Traffic safety has been a priority for Cape May City and this Action Plan Grant will not only provide funding for well-planned solutions but also prequalify the City for construction dollars.”
This year, Implementation Grants ranged from $2.2 M to $30 M. Implementation Grants provide funding for communities to implement strategies and projects that are documented in an Action Plan that will significantly reduce or eliminate transportation-related fatalities and serious injuries. The City plans to apply for an Implementation Grant once the Action Plan is completed.
This federal grant program will fundamentally change how roadway safety is addressed in communities through local and regional efforts that are comprehensive, and data driven. This investment comes at an important junction as traffic fatalities reached a 16 year high in 2021 and preliminary data indicates will remain near those levels in 2022, while getting worse for people walking or biking. In addition, traffic crashes are costly to American society. A National Highway Traffic Safety Administration shows the economic impact of traffic crashes was $340 billion in 2019 alone.
“Every year, crashes cost tens of thousands of American lives and hundreds of billions of dollars to our economy; we face a national emergency on our roadways, and it demands urgent action,” said U.S. Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg. “We are proud that these grants will directly support hundreds of communities as they prepare steps that are proven to make roadways safer and save lives.”
The Safe Streets and Roads for All Program grants announced today support the Department’s vision of zero roadway deaths and its National Roadway Safety Strategy: a comprehensive approach launched in January 2022 to make our nation’s roadways safer for everyone, including drivers, cyclists, pedestrians, and emergency and construction workers, by stressing responsible driving, safer roadway designs, appropriate speed-limit setting, and improved post-crash care, among other strategies.