Lubbock reviews regional safety action plan after FHWA demonstration grant
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Summary
Lubbock staff presented a Comprehensive Safety Action Plan prepared with Kimley‑Horn and the MPO, saying the 2023 FHWA demonstration grant and local participation set the city up to pursue larger federal implementation funding. Council members pressed staff on data quality and asked the city to prioritize measures that reduce fatal crashes.
The Lubbock City Council heard a work‑session briefing Feb. 10 on a regional Comprehensive Safety Action Plan intended to guide future roadway safety projects and federal grant applications. "The Safe Streets for All program is a two‑step grant process," David Bragg, interim director of public works, said, noting the city received a $160,000 demonstration grant from the Federal Highway Administration in February 2023 that required $32,000 in city participation in staff time.
The presentation, prepared with Kimley‑Horn and Associates and the Lubbock MPO, pooled the city's safety analysis with county and SPAG plans into a unified regional approach. Bragg described a "countermeasure toolbox" of short‑term (1–2 years), medium‑term (2–3 years) and long‑term (3–5 years) projects and said the plan will help Lubbock compete for federal implementation grants because the MPO’s scoring favors agencies with safety action plans.
Why it matters: Council members said the plan will shape which projects the city can fund and which grants the city will be competitive for. Bragg told the council 93% of participants in public engagement supported pedestrian projects and 89% supported improved bike facilities, signaling public appetite for non‑motorized safety work.
Council questions centered on data reliability and priority setting. Councilman Glasheen warned against treating standardized DPS crash codes as a complete picture: "...if you put garbage in, you're gonna get garbage out," he said, urging caution in relying on failure‑to‑control‑speed designations without deeper context. Bragg and other staff explained the K/A/B metric shown (K = fatal, A = serious injury, B = minor injury) had been normalized per 100,000 residents for comparability.
City direction and next steps: Bragg said staff will continue implementing countermeasures already used in town (retroreflective back plates, protected crosswalks and selected road diets), pursue grant opportunities, and conduct annual reviews to keep the plan current. Several council members urged the city to front‑load actions most likely to reduce fatal crashes, with repeated emphasis on speed as a primary controllable factor.
The council did not take a formal vote on the plan during the work session; staff said the item will appear on the consent agenda later in the meeting.
