With USDOT soon opening up over $1 billion in Safe Streets for All grant funding, cities, towns, counties, and other local jurisdictions should be prepared to apply for this tremendous opportunity to receive direct federal funding for improving the safety of everyone who uses your streets.
After detailing the program’s unique ability to fund quick-build demonstration projects in our last post, we wanted to highlight a few other things to know about the program as we encourage local staff to prepare your application—or for advocates, to prod your city or town to consider applying. Here are six:
- Nearly $1 billion is available in planning grants that can also support quick-build demonstration projects
- You can do a lot of quick-builds with just a little bit of money
- The application process is one of the simplest you will see from USDOT
- These funds are awarded directly to a local jurisdiction, or to multiple jurisdiction in a joint application
- The planning money has not been competitive to date — it is undersubscribed
- If you want a future implementation grant, you will either need a planning grant now, or an USDOT-approved safety plan
1) Nearly $1 billion is available for planning grants that can also support quick-build demonstration projects
As we spelled out in our last post, Congress mistakenly required that 40% of this new program be devoted to planning grants—vs. implementation grants for construction—even though planning activities are far cheaper than capital projects, and the most urgent needs by far are tangible, concrete changes that improve safety. Through the first two rounds, there haven’t been enough cities applying for planning grants to even tap the full $400 million available in each round. (More on that below). These unused funds are rolling into this next round’s $400 million, which means that somewhere between $900 million and $1 billion will be set aside for planning grants alone. (There will once again be just $600 million available for implementation grants that start at $1 million).
USDOT’s move to broaden the definition of planning to include demonstration projects creates an incredible opening for cities to get funding to pilot temporary street design changes. Though solo applicants can receive up to $10 million, applications don’t have to be that ambitious—there have also been nearly 40 awards of under $100,000. Joint applications (e.g. partnered with other cities, your county, or with a metropolitan planning organization) can receive larger amounts. Local matches of 20 percent are required.
2) You can do a lot of quick-builds with just a little bit of money
The silver lining here is that demonstration projects can be incredibly cheap. We’ve supported numerous successful safety demonstration projects over the last few years with grants as small as just $5,000-$15,000. Imagine what a city could do with $1 million to support a Vision Zero planning effort that’s paired with as many demonstration projects as possible with several hundred thousand dollars? While permanent projects would obviously be preferred, those projects could tangibly move the needle on safety in hundreds of cities tomorrow.
3) This application is one of the simplest you’ll see from USDOT
It’s the most frequent complaint we hear about USDOT competitive grant programs—the application process is arduous, complex, and generally requires staff capacity and expertise that especially small or lower-resourced communities may lack. But SS4A is one of the simpler federal applications, and USDOT has provided some incredibly helpful guidance to make sure that everyone can find what they need to prepare a winning application. See here and also this detailed page about eligible planning grant activities. USDOT is eager to get this money into the hands of the communities that can use it and that’s evident in the level of complexity in this application.
4) This money comes directly to a local jurisdiction, or to multiple jurisdictions in a joint application
Does your city struggle to collaborate with your state DOT, or struggle to get them to invest in the streets that are most important to you? Good news: unlike most federal funds, states are not permitted to apply, and this funding will flow directly to local applicants. You can also team up on a joint application with other nearby jurisdictions or with your county or metropolitan planning organization (MPO) to receive larger awards. USDOT will only consider one application per jurisdiction, so you’ll want to ensure that you’re on the same page within your jurisdiction. USDOT loves to see local jurisdictions that bring numerous internal departments and agencies together, or that bring in neighboring jurisdictions (or overlapping, as with a county).
5) Cities applying for planning dollars have a great chance to receive funding
Across the first two rounds of SS4A funding, USDOT only awarded ~$290 million in planning grants out of the more than $800 million available for that purpose. While some applications may have been denied as ineligible, most planning grant applications were approved and funded. According to their data, USDOT has approved at least 572 planning grants so far, while still only using a small portion of the available money. So if you can put together a solid application that ticks the required boxes, you have a tremendous chance of receiving funding. Time spent working on this grant application is likely to be time very well spent.
While cities should also consider applying for implementation grants—especially those that have already received a planning grant—those funds will be far more competitive. USDOT has had to turn away strong implementation applications—once again underscoring the damage of Congress’ mistake.
6) Receiving a planning grant is a smart step toward a future implementation grant
Jared Brey of Governing connected these dots in his terrific summary for Governing about Baltimore’s initial planning grant and subsequent implementation grant in the second round:
If your community is interested in receiving an implementation grant to build permanent projects, you must have already either 1) received a SS4A planning grant to develop a new street safety action plan, or 2) have already passed some sort of local vision zero safety plan that USDOT will certify. This means that most communities may need to apply for a planning grant before even considering an implementation grant. So go ahead and get in the mix now! This explainer from Sam Schwartz Engineering is one of many out there spelling out the difference between the grant types, and the safety action plan requirements, which are easy to follow.
Maximizing the impact of this important program
Because states control the lion’s share of federal transportation dollars and largely do not truly prioritize safety as their top goal—especially for people outside of vehicles—it is vital that every dollar of the new SS4A program gets maximized to create safer, more equitable streets that prioritize safety and vulnerable road users over speed.
Cities need to be ready to apply for this funding, and should consider applying for planning grants to support demonstration projects if they do not have an implementation plan ready to go.
Our bookmarked resources about applying for SS4A
- USDOT: SS4A application resources
- USDOT: What is eligible for planning grants?
- America Walks: Intersections Initiative
- Vision Zero Network: Huge suite of resources for applying for SS4A
- Sam Schwartz Engineering’s explainer on the program
- Local Infrastructure Hub from a consortium including the US Conference of Mayors, the National League of Cities, Delivery Associates, and Results for America