VHB outlines Safer Streets for All plan, high‑injury network for Pioneer Valley

Kayla, a VHB consultant presenting to the Pioneer Valley Joint Transportation Committee, said the regional Safer Streets and Roads for All (SS4A) plan is about "halfway through" development and moving toward a draft of safety countermeasures. She said the project team used 2020–2024 crash data from MassDOT to build a high‑injury network and a separate risk network that identifies locations with potential for future serious crashes.

The analysis singled out speeding and roadway‑departure crashes in rural areas and a higher share of vulnerable‑user fatalities (pedestrians and bicyclists) in more urban centers. "We evaluated the fatal crash locations throughout the region," Kayla said, and used a sliding‑window methodology consistent with federal guidance to identify priority segments and intersections for safety improvements.

Kayla described next steps: community mapping and outreach (pop‑up events and stakeholder interviews already under way), a digital mapping tool where residents can drop pins and leave comments, and an in‑person open house tentatively scheduled the week of May 11. She said staff will combine multiple risk maps into a single scoring system to prioritize corridors and then assemble a toolbox of short‑term, low‑cost countermeasures up to larger capital solutions tied to transportation improvement projects.

Committee members pressed technical and coordination questions. Betsy Johnson asked whether freeways had been excluded from the analysis; Gary Rue, PVPC’s director of transportation planning, confirmed that interstate and freeway segments were removed from this regional analysis. Members also asked how municipal SS4A plans would feed into the regional product; Gary said the intent is to incorporate recommendations "to the extent possible" and to avoid duplicating locally funded efforts.

Kayla noted federal design references that the toolbox could call out, including the AASHTO bike guide and the Manual on Uniform Traffic Control Devices (MUTCD), to support consistent bikeway and striping treatments across municipal boundaries.

PVPC staff and VHB emphasized the plan’s data foundations and said the final products will include a prioritized list of projects for every town in the region and an action plan that ties safety countermeasures to funding and implementation pathways.

The consultant invited members and the public to use the online mapping tool and to attend upcoming outreach events to help refine priority locations and countermeasure selections.