Transportation Safety is Everyone’s Business
The CRTPO is developing the Charlotte Urban Area’s first Comprehensive Safety Action Plan to identify high crash locations and contributing serious crash factors. This plan will build a coalition of shared traffic safety responsibility with our local communities and state partners, rapidly implement countermeasures to reduce serious crash rates, and build data systems necessary to monitor progress towards safer streets for all users.
Why the CRTPO is undertaking this work.
Roadway deaths and serious injuries are unacceptable.
Since 2021, over 255,000 crashes have occurred on roadways across the CRTPO planning area, resulting in over 2,000 lives altered by serious injuries and over 900 lives lost. Addressing this public health crisis requires a coordinated, data-informed approach to prevent future injuries and deaths regardless of how people travel.
Visit the North Carolina Statewide Crash Dashboard.
Transportation safety is an immediate local priority.
In 2024, CRTPO staff surveyed its member jurisdiction staff and found that traffic safety was an urgent local priority for which alternative funding was necessary. At the same time, several CRTPO members are actively developing or have adopted a local Safety Action Plan, though many more members require additional technical support to undertake a local traffic safety study.
View a list of North Carolina Vision Zero communities.
The CRTPO is an established forum for coordinating limited transportation resources.
The CRTPO is a source for regional transportation decision making, project funding, and member technical services with regular public meetings convened among the region’s elected leaders, transportation staff, and subject matter experts. The CRTPO is positioned to both coordinate traffic safety investment priorities while serving as a funding and resource partner to make crash reduction strategies possible.
Traffic safety is additionally a primary or ancillary strategy in several existing CRTPO plans and funding programs, including the Metropolitan Transportation Plan, Beyond 77 Study, and the Discretionary Grants Program.
Traffic safety funding is accessible to MPOs and local governments to maximize regional impact
A number of short- and long-term funding mechanisms exist for MPOs and their local communities to apply.
The Safe Streets and Roads for All (SS4A) program, for example, is a discretionary federal grant program which exclusively funds local traffic safety initiatives. The CRTPO additionally receives federal block grant funds which are used to sponsor the Discretionary Grant Program for local transportation and planning projects.
These grant funds are a limited, but impactful resource for meeting local and regional traffic safety goals. In 2024, CRTPO staff determined, from surveying local transportation staff and assessing planning area crash data, to pursue dedicated traffic safety funding for member communities to move the needle on decreasing serious roadway crashes.
How the CRTPO is undertaking this work.
North Carolina’s largest federal traffic safety planning grant.
With support from its member jurisdictions, staff applied for and were awarded $3.15 million in federal Safe Streets and Roads for All (SS4A) funds. This award was represents the largest SS4A planning grant investment in North Carolina and will provide the CRTPO with the financial resources necessary to develop a Comprehensive Safety Action Plan (CSAP), the Charlotte Urban Area’s first multi-jurisdictional traffic safety study.
Read the SS4A award press release.
A Multidisciplinary Coalition
This study requires guidance from an array of stakeholders in traffic safety from across the planning area and state. Two core committees will advise the CSAP well before and beyond its final adoption:
Transportation Safety Task Force
The TSTF is comprised of transportation, public safety, and subject matter experts and professionals, focused on advising the plan’s technical components, like the high-injury network methodology. Representation includes staff from every CRTPO member community.
Safety Advisory Group
Individual residents, community organizations, and business partners are invited to join the CSAP Advisory Group to advise on the plan’s community-based strategies, including traffic safety education and sharing back project information with neighborhood groups.
Join the Charlotte Urban Area’s first regional traffic safety effort
The CRTPO is seeking individuals, community organizations, and businesses to help make this program a success. Consider signing up to join our Advisory Group, co-host a traffic safety event, or stay-up-to-date.
Regional Crash Data Tools
Crash reports are often the only tool planning staff have when planning a safety improvement. However, existing crash data provides reactive information about crashes that have already occurred. The CSAP will introduce a combination of new data tools and processes to predict risk and proactively invest in crash reduction strategies.
Regional High Injury Network (HIN)
The regional HIN will be a single crash data map for the entire CRTPO planning area, allowing residents and transportation officials to both identify existing crash locations and deep-dive on contributing crash factors and contexts, like involved road users, posted speed limits, and adjacent land uses. This information will prioritize near-term strategies to prevent further loss or alteration of life, property, and transportation system reliability.
HIN examples:
View the Austin, TX HIN
View the Arlington County, VA HIN
View the Cincinnati, OH HIN
Predictive Risk Analysis
Using a machine-learning model, staff will inventory every corridor and intersection in the planning area to predict where crashes may occur based on current infrastructure conditions, such as sidewalk and crosswalk gaps, deficient lighting, or faded centerline striping. This information is crucial for identifying short-term, quick-build investments to reduce crashes while larger, long-term projects are planned through the Metropolitan Transportation Plan and Transportation Improvement Program.
Regional Crash Dashboard
To monitor the plan’s implementation beyond its completion, staff will develop a Regional Crash Dashboard, the command center to overlay ongoing crash data, planned investments, and land use and demographic data. The dashboard will also serve as the hub for new Traffic Safety Performance Targets and visualize annual progress towards those targets.
The CSAP: A Blueprint for Immediate Action
The CSAP will be this project’s final deliverable, and is a policy and prioritization document informed by public feedback, technical task force input, and regional crash data analysis. The easy-to-read report will be a living document to prioritize policy, infrastructure, and programming strategies in accordance with the US Department of Transportation’s Safe System Approach. Staff will seek adoption by the CRTPO Board upon the plan’s completion.
The CRTPO will leverage its federal grant award to create both the regional CSAP and individual Local Safety Action Plans for each member community without one today. All communities with existing traffic safety projects will be embedded into the region’s new CSAP with technical assistance to support local implementation.
| Communities Receiving a New Local Safety Action Plan | Communities Receiving Implementation Support on an Existing Plan |
|---|---|
| Charlotte Cornelius Fairview Indian Trail Iredell Co. Marshville Mecklenburg Co. Mineral Springs Mint Hill Pineville Stallings Statesville Union Co. Weddington Wesley Chapel Wingate | Davidson Huntersville Marvin Matthews Monroe Mooresville Waxhaw |
Questions
SS4A represents a significant investment in transportation safety planning for the Charlotte urban area, and staff welcomes questions regarding the work we are doing to implement these federal funds.
Please contact Will Snyder, CSAP Project Manager, at will.snyder@charlottenc.gov with any questions, or send a message to email@crtpo.org for general inquires.