The City of Boston was awarded $9 million in federal funding to handle 9 high-crash intersections, and plans to begin development by the tip of 2024.
Chief of Streets Jascha Franklin-Hodge stated fatalities occurred at two of the focused intersections final 12 months, and visitors deaths and critical automobile crashes occurred at numerous the places in prior years.
The areas — 5 in Dorchester with one positioned in a part of Mattapan, two in Chinatown, one in Roxbury and one in East Boston — have been chosen by means of an evaluation of the town’s Vision Zero map, he stated.
“These are intersections that have a history of serious injury or fatality crashes and/or have been places that have been identified by neighbors as places where they don’t feel safe,” Franklin-Hodge stated.
“We’ll be using this funding to implement a number of different strategies or potential strategies that can help slow speeding, make safe crossings safer, reduce confusion and the likelihood of a crash.”
Boston’s deliberate security enhancements embrace raised crosswalks, pedestrian refuge islands, avenue rightsizing, curb extensions, gradual flip wedges, velocity humps and high-visibility crosswalks, in keeping with the U.S. Department of Transportation.
USDOT awarded the funding this week as a part of its Safe Streets and Roads for All Grant Program, established by the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law.
The $800 million funding by the Biden-Harris administration, which is able to fund 510 initiatives, comes after visitors fatalities reached a 16-year excessive in 2021. Preliminary information signifies these ranges will stay related in 2022, in keeping with USDOT.
A brand new report from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration exhibits the financial influence of visitors crashes was $340 billion in 2019.
“Every year, crashes cost tens of thousands of American lives and hundreds of billions of dollars to our economy,” stated U.S. Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg in a press release. “We face a national emergency on our roadways, and it demands urgent action.”
Franklin-Hodge stated the hassle in Boston will kick off on the finish of the 12 months with challenge design. It is aligned with the town’s Vision Zero program, which goals to eradicate deadly and critical visitors crashes within the metropolis by 2030.
There have been 3,298 whole crashes and eight fatalities all through the town final 12 months. Five of the fatalities have been pedestrians, one was a bicyclist and two individuals died in a automobile crash, the Vision Zero map exhibits.
Franklin-Hodge stated the town plans to start development on highway enhancements by the tip of 2024, or in 2025, and full that work by 2025 or 2026.
USDOT additionally awarded a $2.2 million grant to the Boston Region Metropolitan Planning Organization, which is able to use the funds to develop a security motion plan.
Boston MPO stated it would work in partnership with MassDOT and the Metropolitan Area Planning Council to investigate crash information to determine tendencies and high-risk corridors.
There have been 548 visitors fatalities and 4,785 critical accidents within the Boston area between 2016 and 2020, in keeping with MassDOT information.
Sean Rourke, a spokesperson for Boston MPO, stated this would be the first security motion plan for the area, however will construct on current Vision Zero work executed by municipalities and be coordinated with related state planning.
Source: www.bostonherald.com”