U.S. awarding $800 million to improve roads, cut traffic deaths

[February 01, 2023]  By David Shepardson

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The Biden administration will announce Wednesday it is awarding $800 million to redesign roads, improve sidewalks and make other upgrades to address the sharp increase in U.S. traffic deaths.

Traffic deaths jumped 10.5% to 42,915 in 2021, the highest number killed on American roads since 2005. After declining for decades, traffic deaths jumped sharply after COVID-19 lockdowns expired in 2020 and more drivers engaged in unsafe behavior.

Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg told Reuters the United States must reach "a decision as a country that we need to treat this seriously and this isn't just routine.... We face a national emergency on our roadways, and it demands urgent action."

Most of the 510 awards for regional, local, and tribal initiatives are for planning grants funded by a $5 billion, five-year program under the November 2021 infrastructure law.

USDOT is also awarding 37 implementing grants funding low-cost measures like new sidewalks, crosswalks, protected bike lanes, roundabouts, speed bumps, better lighting, and speed-management strategies to slow cars in high-pedestrian traffic areas.

Other projects include mid-block crosswalks, rumble strips, narrower lanes and backplates with reflective borders to improve traffic signal visibility.

USDOT has also launched a data visualization tool showing where traffic crashes occur.

"We literally as we were making the decisions had a map pulled up -- you could see the hot spots," Buttigieg said.

A person rides a bike as the sunset over Manhattan is seen from Brooklyn Bridge Park, during the outbreak of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) in Brooklyn, New York City, U.S., March 24, 2020. REUTERS/Caitlin Ochs

Buttigieg said preliminary data indicates 2022 traffic deaths "seem to have leveled off" near 2021 levels. "We've got to change the plus sign to a minus sign," he said.

The number of pedestrians killed jumped 13% in 2021 to 7,342, the most since 1981. The number of cyclists killed rose 5% to 985, the most since at least 1980. Both categories are still rising.

The awards include $10.4 million for rural Fayette County, Iowa to add rumble strips along 50 miles; Missoula, Montana will get $9 million for new bike lanes, sidewalks and bus stops.

Boston is receiving $9 million for upgrades at nine key intersections, while Seattle was awarded $25 million to build four miles of protected bike lanes, 1.5 miles of new sidewalks and other improvements.

Upgrading America's roads will not be cheap. The United States has 4 million miles of roads and nearly 300 million vehicles that travel more than 3 trillion miles annually.

Last year, a top lawmaker said highway planners for years only emphasized "fast throughput for cars and trucks."

(Reporting by David Shepardson; Editing by Kim Coghill)

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