Webster Groves task force readies Safe Streets plan, schedules public outreach and temporary demonstrations

Webster Groves city staff and members of the Safe Streets Task Force spent most of their meeting reviewing the scope and public outreach plan for a federally funded Safe Streets and Roads for All (SS4A) planning and demonstration grant and scheduling near-term community engagement events.

“The purpose of Safe Streets and Roads for All is to prevent roadway deaths and serious injuries,” said the city staff project lead, summarizing the federal grant that funded the city’s planning work. Task force members were briefed on the grant’s planning role, the consultant contract, a set of temporary demonstration projects and outreach activities that begin this spring.

The nut of the discussion was the safety action plan, the deliverable the SS4A planning grant will fund. City staff described the safety action plan as the document the city will use to define strategies to reduce traffic fatalities and serious injuries and as the conduit the city will use when applying for future implementation funding. “Safety action plan is really the ultimate goal,” the project lead said.

City staff told the group that consultant Gonzales (contract approved by the city council in the weeks before the meeting) will prepare the safety action plan and help design the community engagement program. The consultants will compile the task force’s input and survey results into the plan; staff said Gonzales may attend some public events but emphasized the task force’s role in staffing outreach tables and talking with residents.

Task force members discussed outreach materials and messaging. Several members said the plan should make the sequence from planning to funding to construction clear to residents, including distinguishing planning deliverables from projects with “shovels in the ground.” Members recommended showing a clear timeline or sequence graphic, plain-language talking points about how the survey will be used, and examples of demonstration projects for use at events.

Staff described the first public engagement opportunity: the Webster on Wheels community bike ride on May 3, with tabling planned from roughly 12:30–4:30 p.m. Task force members signed up for shifts to staff the table and suggested real-time visuals, such as a map where attendees can mark streets of concern or a live-generated word cloud showing common responses.

Staff and task force members reviewed demonstration projects described in the grant application and in plans from neighboring Kirkwood. Demonstrations planned for Webster Groves include temporary speed humps (locations identified in the grant application, with about 40 candidate sites discussed), adaptive signal timing, variable speed limit signs, an in-road pedestrian warning-light system, pedestrian hybrid beacons for a high-crossing location, and a multiuse shared path on North Elm connecting Lockwood to Kirkham. Staff said most demonstration installations would be temporary (typically two to three weeks in examples cited) and would be used to inform the safety action plan.

The group also discussed timing and approvals. Staff said the federally required environmental review under the National Environmental Policy Act is in progress and expected to finish in September; staff emphasized that demonstration installations cannot start until that review is complete. Members asked about future SS4A funding rounds and staff said the next Notice of Funding Availability (NOFA) timeline was uncertain but that, to date, SS4A has not been canceled and the city remains cautiously optimistic about future funding opportunities.

Task force members asked for a concise list of planned demonstration examples and talking points they could use at outreach events; staff said they will share those examples and the portion of the grant application that lists candidate demonstration locations. Staff also said they will prepare clearer materials explaining how the survey results are used to shape priorities in the safety action plan.

No formal new votes were taken at this meeting; prior city council action to approve the consultant contract was discussed as already completed. Members agreed to staff the May 3 outreach event and to continue refining public-facing materials and the demonstration project descriptions.

The meeting closed with staff saying they will circulate a Doodle poll about ongoing meeting times and provide the task force with the demonstration examples and outreach assets for upcoming events.