Vision 0 committee reviews limits of local funding as $10 million-a-year Roadway Safety Action Program leans on federal grants

The Vision 0 Citizen Advisory Committee heard a briefing on the city’s Roadway Safety Action Program funding and how limited local dollars are being combined with federal grants to pay for large safety projects.

The committee was told the RSAP totals about $10 million a year: $5 million from the city’s AHERF gas-tax allocation, $3 million from the general fund and $2 million from Transportation 2050 (T2050). Director Brandy Kelso said staff has leveraged those local dollars to attract federal funds, noting that “we obtained $38,000,000 over this 6 year duration in federal funding.”

Why it matters: committee members and staff emphasized local money alone cannot pay for large corridor rebuilds. Andy Granger, a city streets staff member, told the committee maintenance and annual programs consume most local AHERF revenues and that one-time capital projects already allocated in the near-term limit capacity for new AHERF-funded projects.

City funding breakdown and constraints - Andy Granger described the local funding picture: the Street Transportation operating budget draws heavily on AHERF, and annual AHERF allocations are largely committed to maintenance and recurring programs. He said the remaining AHERF capacity for one-time projects is already allocated in the five-year plan. "All of that funding has already been allocated to 1 time projects," Granger said. - T2050 (the voter-approved sales-tax program) dedicates roughly 14% of its revenue to streets; after annual debt service (about $26.5 million a year) the program has an estimated $33.5 million a year left to program. T2050 guidance initially directed 50% to maintenance, 30% to major streets projects and 15% to sidewalks/mobility, with a technology component and a $2 million annual RSAP allocation noted during the briefing. - Staff and committee members repeatedly stressed the high cost of major corridor projects. As an example, staff said the Indian School Road reconstruction received $25 million in federal SS4A funding and was the largest single project in the RSAP portfolio; staff noted that large corridor projects quickly consume multiple years of local RSAP funding without outside grants.

Selecting projects and evaluating benefits Committee members pressed staff on how projects are prioritized. City staff said they focus on the high-injury network and generally start with locations that show the highest number or severity of collisions. Granger and another staff presenter described the practice of using benefit-cost analysis where required: "Some items that we implement require what's called a benefit cost ratio where you look at the number of collisions that are happening," staff said, explaining the method ties estimated crash reductions (and a societal cost per crash) to project cost.

Staff said not every project has a straightforward crash-reduction forecast (education programs in particular are harder to quantify) and that before/after studies typically require multi-year crash data. The committee was told an updated annual RSAP report is under preparation and is expected to be presented to the committee in the October meeting.

Public comment and next steps Public commenters raised related budget points, including a request to clarify how GO bond dollars and other local equity/mobility allocations intersect with RSAP funding. A member of the public also asked for greater transparency about how land-use and roadway policy decisions affect the city’s ability to fund safety infrastructure.

Staff committed to returning with more detailed material and asked the committee for input on education and community engagement strategies tied to new infrastructure.

Ending: Staff said the program will continue to rely on combining limited local dollars with federal and other outside funding, and the committee will revisit the RSAP annual report and project-level materials in an upcoming meeting to provide formal input.