In a move to shore up pedestrian and traffic safety, Boerne has landed a $240,000 boost from federal coffers. The grant, intricate part of the Safe Streets and Roads for All (SS4A) program, pairs with $60,000 of city funds targeting enhancements to the fabric of street-level transit.
Staff at the City’s Engineering and Mobility Department earned their keep by securing the grant after much groundwork. Plans include a revamp of the City's extant Safety Action Plan, syncing with all federal guidelines. Furthermore, a fresh pedestrian safety action plan for the downtown area is on the cards, aiming to reduce pedestrian mishaps and serious injuries in an area fraught with risk. A battery of intersection-focused road safety audits in notable crash hotspots is also in the pipeline.
“The SS4A grant will empower the City with valuable data on traffic and pedestrian patterns, informing our decisions as we continually improve Boerne’s mobility planning and safety,” remarked Engineering and Mobility Director Jeff Carroll.
The grant's application clicks well with the aspirations of the City’s Mobility Master Plan, a blueprint adopted by the City Council in 2023 with an eye on boosting safety and bridging connections. It also dovetails with the goalposts of the Vision Zero initiative, a broad step forward approved by the City Council in 2022 in a comprehensive pledge to eliminate all pedestrian and traffic fatalities through strategic and savvy mobility investments.
The procurement of this grant spells a future where streets might finally bend to the will of safety rather than to the chaos of chance and happenstance—a future that will be set in motion when City staff presents the SS4A grant to City Council for an official benediction of the funds.
For more information on Boerne’s traffic and pedestrian initiatives, readers can access the full source of these plans.
