CLEVELAND — The Cuyahoga County Planning Commission and county received $600,000 in a Safe Streets & Roads for All grant, meant to develop a Comprehensive Safety Action Plan to make the county’s streets safer and reduce the amount of traffic fatalities.
The grant money, which comes from the federal government, will be used to hire a consultant to help develop the Cuyahoga County Comprehensive Safety Action Plan, which will use input from community members as well as data to understand where high priority areas are and what community members would like to see to improve road safety in their neighborhoods.
Once the plan is completed, communities in the county will be able to apply for federal funds to implement safety measures, said Mary Cierbiej, executive director of the Cuyahoga County Planning Commission.
“It's really taking a holistic approach of looking at all the big communities and saying, ‘Where are the big issues and what do we need to address?’” she said. “So it's going to be a lot of data gathering, it's going to be a lot of community engagement.”
Cierbiej said it was important for the county to apply for the grant in order to help multiple communities, rather than leaving each community to apply for grant money on their own. She also noted that some communities have already applied and received money.
According to a press release from the county, from 2017 to 2021, 484 people were killed in crashes in the county. The release goes on to say that 54% of people killed in crashes were Black, despite only 29% of the county population identifying as Black or African American.
Cierebiej also noted that 40% of those deaths happened in suburban communities outside of Cleveland.
“It's disproportionately affecting people of color, and so we need to make sure that we've got deep engagement in those communities to help figure out what would make it safe for biking, for walking, for driving to and from work, transit, whatever it may be,” she said. “So it really is a holistic approach of looking at a Comprehensive Safety Action Plan for the whole county.”
Additionally, Cierebiej said that when comparing Cuyahoga County to 10 metro areas of similar size and configuration, such as Wayne County, Michigan, where Detroit is located, or Hennepin County, Minnesota, where Minneapolis is located, Cuyahoga had the third largest number of traffic fatalities.
“It's a really good time to be doing something like this because we don't want the trend to continue upward,” she said.
While solutions will depend largely on data collection, understanding fatal crashes and community feedback and input, Cierebiej said possible fixes could include things like better signage for pedestrians in crosswalks, clearly designated and demarcated bike lanes, intersection and signage improvements, sidewalks and safe places to wait for public transit.
In addition to the $600,000 in Safe Streets For All funding to engage a consultant to help develop the Cuyahoga County Comprehensive Safety Action Plan, Cierebiej said County Planning will provide an in-kind match worth $150,000 in the form of professional planning services, provided by County Planning staff.