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New Rochelle moves to form safety advisory committee, aims for zero traffic fatalities by 2040
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Summary
City officials heard a presentation from consultant Jesse Mintz-Roth and staff on a Local Road Safety Action Plan tied to the federal Safe Streets for All program, agreed to authorize the city manager to form an advisory committee, and set a timeline to seek SS4A funds by June 2026.
A consultant and city staff told the City of New Rochelle Committee of the Whole on Jan. 13 that a Local Road Safety Action Plan (LSAP) will combine crash data, predictive risk analysis and public input to prioritize street-safety investments and make the city more competitive for federal Safe Streets for All (SS4A) funding.
"My name is Jesse Mintz-Roth, and I'm from Stantec," the consultant said, explaining the approach and noting New Rochelle won a $400,000 demonstration grant late last year. He told council the SS4A program—created under the federal infrastructure law—includes safety-action planning, demonstration projects and implementation grants that can reach up to $25 million.
The plan will use five years of crash and injury data (2020–2024) to build a high-injury network, add a predictive layer that accounts for proximity to schools, transit stops and senior housing, and incorporate community-sourced reports through an interactive bilingual map and two in-person workshops. Staff said the public input map should be online in late January and that the project team aims to return to council with draft and final plans in April–June so the city can meet an anticipated SS4A application window around 06/25/2026.
Council members pressed for more legible maps with council-district overlays and asked how short-term hot-spot fixes will be timed. Staff said projects at Memorial & Lockwood and Memorial & Lincoln are expected to be advanced as part of the Link project, with a hoped-for late Q3 2026 groundbreaking for the Link's first phase. Staff also agreed to provide district-parsed crash maps.
On the question of governance, staff recommended the council authorize the city manager to form a local safety action committee that would include technical staff, school representatives and community participants so the work can progress faster than the regular council calendar. The council later moved the related authorization (item 15) to the consent agenda, effectively empowering the city manager to convene the committee and begin the plan’s preparation.
The city framed the LSAP as part of a broader effort to align local projects with state and federal funding streams, reduce severe injuries and fatalities, and prioritize equity via outreach to Spanish-speaking residents and targeted stakeholder engagement. Staff emphasized that the High Injury Network will be iteratively refined with community input and that inclusion in the LSAP will not be the sole determinant of whether a project proceeds.
Next steps: staff will publish the interactive map and online survey, begin stakeholder interviews, finalize a community engagement timeline in the coming weeks, form the advisory committee (anticipated in February) and return to council with draft recommendations ahead of the June deadline for SS4A grant applications.
