The City of Dayton is one of 14 recipients of Safe Streets for All grants in Ohio. The grants come from the federal Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, and will pay for safety improvements on local roads.
Dayton will receive $160,000 to develop a safety action plan to make roads safer. Rather than focus on one big project, the city will look at various ones.
“We would like to take a look at our network as a whole,” Dayton’s acting chief engineer David Escobar said. “We do know we have some hot spots around the areas and would focus first there, but would not want to specifically identify one or two projects.”
An example hotspot was Gettysburg Avenue. Escobar said the corridor sees speeding and reckless driving.
The city has already implemented some safety measures such as speed cushions and speed tables, but the SS4A grants also provide the ability to look at the network in a holistic sense.
“We want to look at the environment as a whole to make sure that we’re not just putting up barriers and blocks, but still making it an inviting corridor for all users, and maybe converting it in some way to be more inviting,” Escobar said.
This includes pedestrians, cyclists and those with mobility issues. This city-wide look at and planning for change is a new challenge for Escobar. He’s previously worked on neighborhood and transportation plans, but nothing on this scale.
“This is uncharted territory for me,” he said. “But I’m not shying away from it. I’m excited. And with the opportunity [to] move in a different direction and change our way of thinking in a way.”
Escobar said Dayton officials are still in talks with the U.S. Department of Transportation about final details.
