The 2021 Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (IIJA) established the Safe Streets and Roads for All (SS4A) program as a discretionary initiative to fund regional, local, and Tribal initiatives through grants aimed at preventing roadway deaths and serious injuries. The SS4A program promotes the development of comprehensive safety action plans (Action Plans) that identify a community’s most significant roadway safety concerns and guide the implementation of projects and strategies to address these issues. Action Plans form the foundation of the SS4A grant program.
A Vision Zero approach to transportation safety asserts that all traffic deaths and serious injuries are preventable. It advocates for designing roads and policies to mitigate human error and prevent serious injuries or fatalities. Vision Zero necessitates collaboration across a diverse group of stakeholders, including transportation professionals, emergency service providers, policy makers, and the public, to identify and prioritize equitable projects that consider all road users.
Effective Vision Zero projects and strategies rely on data-driven approaches and can be implemented at various scales. Whether focusing on infrastructure improvements such as deploying proven safety countermeasures or adopting long-term behavioral modification strategies like driver safety education programs, achieving Vision Zero demands a paradigm shift that prioritizes safety as the foremost concern within the transportation network.
Safety Action Plans serve as the initial step in identifying roadway safety projects and are a prerequisite for accessing federal funds for future construction of such projects. They establish feasible strategies to work towards a public commitment of zero serious injuries and fatalities on the roadway network within a defined timeframe. Safety Action Plans use crash and equity data to conduct thorough analyses and identify areas needing improvement. Through fostering partnerships and engaging stakeholders and the public, transparency and performance objectives toward a safer roadway network can be attained.
Learn more about several programs promoting street safety from these resources:
- USDOT Safe Streets for All (SS4A) Grant Program
- FHWA Local Road Safety Plans
- FHWA Zero Deaths and Safe System
- NJTPA Local Safety Action Plans
- Hudson County Vision Zero
- About Vision Zero
