Cherokee County presents Safe Streets and Roads for All plan, seeks Vision Zero adoption

Cherokee County officials and their consultant on March 4 presented a completed Safe Streets and Roads for All safety action plan and asked the Board of Commissioners to adopt the plan and a countywide "Vision 0" policy committing the county to reduced traffic deaths and serious injuries.

The plan, prepared with Pond and Company under a federal Safe Streets and Roads for All grant, inventories crash risk countywide, ranks about 15–17 high-priority corridors and intersections, and groups recommended infrastructure projects into short-, medium- and long-term programs. County Community Development Director Brantley Day told commissioners the county and four cities secured a $450,000 USDOT grant (about 80% federal funding) with a 20% local match funded by the county and participating cities according to SPLOST shares.

The study found 87 roadway fatalities in Cherokee County from 2018 through 2022, a figure Day highlighted as driving the county's focus on implementation. "We have been talking about it a long time," Day said in introducing the presentation. Pond and Company consultant Kat Onor said the plan uses a safe-systems approach, which treats deaths and serious injuries as unacceptable and emphasizes design changes, redundancy, and policy and program actions in addition to enforcement and education.

Onor summarized public engagement and key takeaways: three stakeholder committee meetings that drew roughly 50 participants, two public meetings, online surveys and pop-up events at farmers markets and libraries. Recurrent community concerns included speeding and aggressive driving, requests for better pedestrian and bicycle facilities, intersection upgrades and public education. The consultant recommended short-term measures that are relatively low-cost — improved lighting, striping, and signal timing changes such as leading pedestrian intervals — as well as longer-term corridor retrofits and coordination with the Georgia Department of Transportation (GDOT) on state routes.

The presentation included a recommended leadership commitment: a 15-year Vision 0 timeframe aligned with peer communities. Onor said the county's proposed target year for the Vision 0 goal is February 2040, a benchmark she described as an internal planning horizon to track progress rather than a guaranteed outcome. "Vision 0 means we are committing to a goal of 0 traffic deaths and serious injuries in Cherokee County," she said.

County staff told commissioners the adoption of the plan and the Vision 0 policy are on the manager's list of items for the business meeting and that the draft plan will be transmitted to the Federal Highway Administration for finalization. Staff said adopting the plan also makes the county eligible for future Safe Streets for All grant programs, subject to changes at the federal level. Day and Onor emphasized that infrastructure work will require multi-jurisdiction coordination: "State routes are included in this study because no matter where you go in the county, Cherokee County soil is under that road," Day said, noting some projects would require GDOT coordination.

Discussion among commissioners focused on implementation, possible grant opportunities and the political landscape around federal funding. Onor said the Safe Streets and Roads for All program grew out of the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law and noted the program has emphasized equity; she added that, while specific federal grant programs may change, transportation and safety funding generally remain available. Commissioners asked about near-term costs and integration with the County's Comprehensive Transportation Plan and SPLOST-funded projects; staff said they will break the recommended projects into implementable pieces and show how many can be advanced within existing programs.

The transcript shows the resolutions to adopt the Cherokee County Municipalities Comprehensive Safety Action Plan and the Vision 0 policy were placed on the county agenda for consideration but records no board vote on either resolution during the provided excerpt.

The county's next steps described in the presentation include forming a Vision 0 task force (a standing stakeholder committee), coordinating final adoption among the county and participating municipalities, transmitting the plan materials to federal authorities and mapping recommended projects to existing project lists and funding opportunities.

Why it matters: The plan both documents the county's recent crash history and lays out a sequence of engineering, policy and program actions that staff say could be integrated with ongoing projects and grant applications. Adoption would signal an official county commitment to a long-term target and make the county eligible for federal safety funding contingent on program availability.

No formal vote is recorded in the transcript. Commissioners signaled intent to return to the items during the business meeting portion of the agenda for formal consideration.