Mayor Tishaura O. Jones Proposes at Least $40 Million in American Rescue Plan Funding to Make Streets Safer Following Extensive Community Input, Town Halls

In an op-ed for the Riverfront Times today, Mayor Tishaura O. Jones proposes using at least $40 million in American Rescue Plan funds to improve street safety through traffic calming measures and a citywide mobility and transportation plan. The proposal comes after multiple community town halls, more than 5,000 survey responses as well as roundtables with community stakeholders and leaders. An excerpt is below:

“Aldermen are responsible on a ward-by-ward basis for determining infrastructure needs and can use ward capital funds to fund these improvements, but when people do not feel safe traveling on our roads, it’s clear the current fragmented system isn’t working. Think about Kingshighway, which runs nearly the entire length of St. Louis across 11 wards. Grand touches even more wards at 12. Piecemeal solutions to a crisis that touches our entire city sets us up to fail time and time again.

“St. Louis needs a mobility and transportation master plan that takes our entire city into account to coordinate broader work while helping us access federal grants we currently cannot. While the St. Louis Metropolitan Police Department has increased traffic enforcement especially in high-crash areas, we need structural change on how our city cares for our streets…

“The American Rescue Plan funds remaining in the bank give us the transformational opportunity to take a citywide approach by funding much-needed measures to reduce traffic violence. That’s why my administration will propose to the Board of Aldermen a significant investment of at least $40 million in ARPA funding to transform our streets in key phases while we work towards a long-term comprehensive citywide plan: building out traffic calming improvements in high-crash, high-risk areas; funding implementation on multiple already-completed studies for dangerous corridors and intersections; and adding traffic calming measures to major streets like Jefferson, Grand, Union, Goodfellow and Kingshighway already set for full repaving through ARPA. Funding from local bonds, as well as collaboration with regional and federal partners, can help these dollars go even further.”

For the first time since 2019, the Board of Aldermen passed a budget on to the mayor’s desk for her signature, and the administration is ready to work with the Board of Aldermen to make our streets safer no matter how residents choose to get around - walking, biking, using public transit, or driving.

The full piece can be found at the Riverfront Times. The City will hold another town hall around traffic calming and safety in North St. Louis later this month.