Village and Town of Potsdam awarded Safe Streets and Roads for All Grant
The Village and Town of Potsdam have been awarded $158,568 from the U.S. Department of Transportation through the Safe Streets and Roads for All (SS4A) Planning and Demonstration Grant Program. Potsdam was one of 257 successful awards recently announced for the final round of fiscal year (FY) 2024 SS4A grant funding, which were awarded to local, regional and tribal communities across the country.
The Village was the lead applicant for the project, which will allow the communities to create a Comprehensive Safety Action Plan that improves safety and accessibility to destinations within, to, and from Potsdam. The planning process will include engagement opportunities such as a community fair and traffic garden, along with demonstration activities looking at the effectiveness of different solutions such as protected crosswalks, separated cycling lanes, or park and trail connections. Including the local share, the total project cost will be $198,210.
“Our residents and visitors deserve safer and more accessible streets, and they are clamoring for change. If we can identify solutions, small and large, to continually make our streets and roads safer, our community will be more vibrant. More people of different ages, backgrounds and mobility levels will be able to walk or bike in their everyday lives. Safety will be enhanced, and our impact on the environment will be reduced. Finally, increased foot and bike traffic in and around our historic downtown helps to support our local economy and make Potsdam healthier in every sense of the word,” said Mayor Alexandra Jacobs Wilke.
Potsdam was one of 13 communities across New York State to receive funding in the final round of FY 2024 funding announced on Nov. 15. Combined, 710 communities across the country have received over $1.2 billion this fiscal year.
“I believe this shared effort will benefit residents and visitors alike and can help identify solutions that may work in other rural communities as well,” Supervisor Marty Miller said.
SS4A Planning and Demonstration Grants help communities develop road safety action plans and inform improvements along corridors with safety issues. They also provide funding to implement “quick-build” and other temporary strategies to test out safety features, such as separated bicycle lanes or curb extensions at intersections. Through the project, Potsdam will work with a national consultant to develop the comprehensive safety action plan, while experienced faculty and passionate students from Clarkson University will assist in on-the-ground data-gathering and implementation of test projects and engagement activities.
“Active transportation is a critical component of a vibrant and growing community, especially in rural and small town communities,” said Erik Backus, Professor of Practice and Director of the Construction Engineering Management Program at Clarkson University. “We are so excited to be a part of the Village and Town of Potsdam SS4A grant team, where our students and faculty can support our community while also learning how to be better engineers by being the hands-on part of installing efforts like pop-up traffic gardens and doing field surveying.”
The idea for the SS4A project grew out of ongoing advocacy and work led by local organizations and municipal leaders in recent years, including the Route 11 Active Transportation Study led by Dr. Backus’s team, which the Town, Village and New York State Department of Transportation collaborated on.
“It is very exciting to see a project that was initially funded by the Health Initiative’s Creating Healthy Schools and Communities program, a grant from the New York State Department of Health, receive national attention and funding,” said Karen Bage, Community Coordinator at the Health Initiative. “Having safe means of travel, for pedestrians, cyclists, and drivers alike, is very important to the livability of our community.”
The Mayor spearheaded the SS4A application with local partners after learning about it through the Active People, Healthy Nation Champions Institute. She was part of the inaugural cohort of the program, which is sponsored by Smart Growth America and the CDC’s Division of Nutrition, Physical Activity and Obesity.
The Village and Town received support for the application from Senator Charles Schumer, Senator Kirsten Gillibrand, Representative Elise Stefanik, State Senator Daniel Stec, State Assemblyman Scott Gray and St. Lawrence County Legislator Margaret Haggard, as well as from local institutions, major employers and non-profit organizations.
To learn more about the Safe Streets and Roads for All program, visit https://www.transportation.gov/grants/SS4A.