Maryland Delegation Announces Nearly $43 Million for Statewide Road Safety Programs

S. Senators Ben Cardin and Chris Van Hollen and Congressmen Steny H. Hoyer, Dutch Ruppersberger, John Sarbanes, Kweisi Mfume, Jamie Raskin, David Trone and Glenn Ivey (all D-Md.) announced $42,882,024 in Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (IIJA) funding, through the Safe Streets for All grant program, for Maryland localities to upgrade outdated roadway infrastructure and improve safety.

$7,500,000 for the Maryland-National Capital Park and Planning Commission to improve trail crossings through safety measures such as installing new traffic signals and additional lighting and launch an educational safety programs campaign to improve for pedestrians and cyclists in Montgomery and Prince George’s County.

Per the news release:

According to a recent report released by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration last month, an estimated 31,785 people – including 403 individuals in Maryland – lost their lives to traffic crashes between January 2022 and September 2022.

“The number of roadway fatalities across our country is alarming and unacceptable,” said the lawmakers. “This new influx of federal grant funding that we worked to deliver through the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act will ensure communities across our state are able to reverse the dangerous trends in traffic injuries and fatalities through necessary infrastructure upgrades and proven safety countermeasures. Team Maryland will keep working to strengthen safety across our transportation networks.”

The funding was secured through the U.S. Department of Transportation’s Safe Streets for All Program, a new competitive grant program authorized through the IIJA. These funds can be used to support state and local government and transit agency planning initiatives, such as comprehensive safety action plans, to prevent death and serious injury for all roadway users, including pedestrians, bicyclists, public transportation and micromobility users, motorists and commercial vehicle operators. The Safe Streets For All grant program will invest $5 billion in the nation’s roadways over the next five years. Additional statewide recipients:

• $21,253,985 for Prince George’s County to implement seven safety and connectivity improvements on the County’s “high injury network” and similar corridors to reduce roadway crashes, improve pedestrian and bicyclist safety, enhance visibility and slow vehicle speeds in underserved communities.
• $11,753,586 for the City of Salisbury to apply proven safety countermeasures, such as sidewalk repairs, additional high-visibility crosswalks, expanded bike paths, curb extensions and pedestrian signals.
• $1,005,453 for the City of Baltimore to develop a comprehensive safety action plan.
• $764,000 for Frederick County to develop a comprehensive safety action plan.
• $200,000 for the City of Frederick to develop a safety action plan comprised of an inclusive public safety engagement strategy that prioritizes disadvantaged census tracts, assesses crash data by demographic and uses geospatial risk visualization to reduce roadway injuries and fatalities.
• $160,000 for the City of Hagerstown to develop a comprehensive safety action plan.
• $140,000 for the Town of Bel Air to develop a comprehensive safety action plan.
• $105,000 for Anne Arundel County to conduct data analysis that will build on the existing safety action plan and support partner engagement.