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Countywide SS4A safety-action plan presented to Mobile City Council; public input sought
Summary
Regional planners told the council a countywide Safe Streets and Roads for All (SS4A) safety action plan will use crash data and public input to prioritize projects; presenters reported 71,000 crashes in Mobile County over the past five years and asked the public to complete a QR-code survey that will feed an interactive map and a prioritized project list for possible $22–$25 million implementation grants.
Kevin Harrison of Saint Associates and Monica Williamson of the South Alabama Regional Planning Commission told the Mobile City Council on Jan. 6 that SARPC has secured funding to develop a countywide SS4A safety action plan designed to identify high-crash locations and candidate countermeasures.
"There's been 71,000 crashes in Mobile County in the past 5 years," Harrison said, and he added that the data set includes pedestrian and bicycle crashes. The SS4A effort will produce a safety action plan and an interactive heat map; public responses to an online survey and map tools will be used to prioritize locations for countermeasures drawn from 28 Federal Highway Administration–approved options.
Harrison said the plan-writing phase will take about a year and that an implementation grant could be available to jurisdictions for projects identified in the plan; the presentation referenced an implementation-grant range of about $22–$25 million for eligible projects. He warned that Alabama Department of Transportation rules limit publishing crash-point maps in the state: "The state of Alabama does not allow us to publish a document that has, the where the actual crash located," he said, so deliverables will identify hot spots within the constraints of state policy.
Presenters asked council members to amplify outreach: they have a QR code, paper surveys and an interactive map and asked council members to post the materials on social channels and distribute a digital copy to clerks. Council members asked about prioritization (an objective formula including fatalities, injury severity and public comments), stakeholder oversight and whether implementation funds can be used for utilities relocation—Harrison said yes, if identified in the plan.
Next steps: SARPC will run a month-long public-involvement campaign, finalize the safety action plan in under a year, and then individual jurisdictions will be asked to adopt the plan so projects are eligible for implementation funding.
