WASHINGTON (AP) – With upcoming data showing an increase in road deaths, the Biden administration is targeting $ 5 billion in federal aid to cities and towns to tackle the growing crisis by slowing down cars, cutting bike paths and more sidewalks and encouraging passengers to take public transport.
Transport Minister Pete Buttigig on Monday announced the availability of money for five years under his department’s “Safe Streets and Roads for All” program.
The goal will be to provide a direct infusion of federal money to communities that are committed to promoting safety for many road users, especially pedestrians and cyclists, as well as drivers.
Federal data released this week by the Department of Transportation is expected to show another big jump in U.S. deaths by 2021, reflecting ongoing risky driving that began with the coronavirus pandemic in March 2020. Deaths among pedestrians and cyclists are on the rise faster than those within vehicles.
Deaths are also disproportionately higher among lower-income non-white people, who are more likely to use public transport and travel on foot or by bicycle, as well as those in tribal and rural areas where speeding can be common and the use of seat belts is less common.
“We are facing a national crisis of deaths and serious injuries on our roads, and these tragedies are preventable – so as a nation we must work urgently and together to save lives,” Butigig said. He said the money “will help communities large and small to take action to protect all Americans on our roads.”
“We are too used to the loss of life and the serious injuries that happen on our roads,” he said.
Reviewing the upcoming data, Stephen Cliff, acting head of the National Road Safety Administration, told an event last week that the final figures would show “alarming” increases for the whole of 2021.
Road deaths account for about 95% of all traffic deaths in the United States, more than 38,000 in 2020. In 2021, data published so far already show that trafficking in the United States increased to 31,720 in the third quarter, at most the high nine-month period of 2006. Before. In 2020, the number of trafficking deaths in the United States decreased for three consecutive years.
Cliff said most of the deaths happen to drivers who don’t buckle up and often on short “down the street” trips.
The department’s efforts are part of a new national strategy launched in January to halt record increases in road deaths with a “safe system” approach that promotes better road design, lower speed limits and more strict rules for car safety. About $ 5-6 million in grants are included in President Joe Biden’s Infrastructure Act.
Yet much of the federal roadmap relies on cooperation from cities and states and could take months, if not years, to fully implement with noticeable results – too late to reassure medium-term voters for 2022, troubled by this and other pandemic-related issues, such as rising crime.
The latest US guidelines on Monday call on cities and towns to outline security plans in their applications for federal subsidies, which will be awarded later this year.
It cites examples of good projects, such as those that promise to transform the roadway with a high accident rate, such as adding rumble lanes to slow cars or installing speed cameras, which the department said could provide more fair law enforcement by police trafficking; flashing beacons for footpaths; new “safe routes” through sidewalks or other protected paths to school or public transport in underserved communities; and other community-designed roadmaps for rapid construction.
Buttigieg traveled to Germany on Monday for the International Transport Forum to discuss best practices for achieving the UN’s goal of halving world deaths by 2030. About 1.25 million people die on the roads each year. The United States is mostly extraordinary when it sees an increase in pandemic deaths, even with fewer cars on the road, in part due to higher levels of speeding in the United States and not wearing seat belts.
Michael Kelly, political director of the BikeWalkKC road safety group in Kansas City, Missouri, says he advocates cycling and hiking because his two young daughters love to explore outside, but can’t do so safely because in their neighborhood there are no sidewalks and places near the highway.
Kelly, a black man, said communities can become more vibrant and connected by promoting pedestrian neighborhoods that allow older people who can’t drive easily, such as his parents, to “grow old on the spot” near -the younger generation, like his daughters, who increasingly “don’t want or have to drive” a car if there are other safe and affordable transport options.
“Everyone deserves to be able to walk, ride a bike, travel by public transport and make it a safe and easy choice,” Kelly said.
Buttigieg stressed the urgency.
“I am convinced that we can use this moment, this urgent and alarming moment, as a fulcrum,” he said. “We want to fund everything that will be most direct to reduce accidents and save lives so that we can change the trajectory of road safety during this decade.
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