City of Austin gets millions from USDOT to improve pedestrian safety

AUSTIN, Texas - The city of Austin has been awarded a multimillion dollar grant by the U.S. Department of Transportation to improve safety for pedestrians.

The funds will help install dozens of crosswalks citywide and develop a neighborhood street program that would allow for block parties and outdoor activities.

"We have segments of street where there isn't a crossing in a close enough range for someone to be likely to use it and we want people to cross at safe locations, so the idea is to close those gaps city wide as quickly as possible," said Laura Dierenfield, the city's Transportation and Public Works Department Division Manager.

The $10.5 million Safe Streets and Roads for All grant will allow the city to install crossings at nearly 50 locations.

"The total amount would be around $13 million total for this work, so being able to do that with only $2.5 million is a remarkable achievement and ability that can leverage those dollars," said Dierenfield.

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The added crossings are being installed to reduce serious crashes involving pedestrians.

"Pedestrian deaths are a huge concern for our region and our city in particular, and so the better we can do to get those crossing gaps addressed, the more reliable places people will have to cross the street safely," said Dierenfield.

According to the city, $1.5 million will be used to develop the city's Living Streets program. A portion of those funds will come from the $10.5 million dollar grant.

"Residents can request their neighborhood street to become either a play street or a healthy street or they can request a block party and all of those are various forms of opening that street up to the neighborhood for play or for walking. The demonstration grant portion of this will allow us to really further develop that program," said Dierenfield.

Austin Mayor Kirk Watson took to social media Friday stating in part: "This funding will help us expand the work we’re doing to make Austin streets safer for everyone who uses them, whether they’re driving, walking, cycling or rolling."

"We are grateful for our support of our elected officials, we are all in this together as a city," said Dierenfield.

The Transportation Department says it could take up to five years for all the crosswalks to be completed.