As a part of the Inflation Reduction Acts Safer Streets and Roads for All program, the city of Salem and Umatilla and Clackamas counties will receive nearly $3.7 million to make their streets safer.
Clackamas County is expected to get $333,000 of that funding, which it will use to update its safety plan for roadways. The county has previously used its budget to pay for improved and updated street signs.
“People don’t want to crash. That’s expensive, it’s dramatic,” said Joseph Marek, traffic safety program manager for Clackamas County. ”Signing is one really low-cost way that we can cover a lot of road corridors and improve safety.”
According to Marek, traffic crash fatality has been averaging between 29 and 32 deaths in the past few years. Some of the most common reasons for traffic accidents include aggressive driving, vehicles following too closely behind other vehicles and motorists not staying in their respective lanes.
Treven Upkes is the deputy chief of the field operations division for the Salem Police Department.
He says vehicle-pedestrian collisions account for roughly 40% of fatal crashes in Salem. The city has been averaging about 15 fatalities involving vehicles in the past few years.
Salem will receive the lion’s share of the federal funding at $2.8 million. It will use the money to install additional signage, reduce speed limits in residential areas and install speed radar signs that display how fast a vehicle is traveling.
Upkes said the federal dollars will also help pay for outreach campaigns to educate motorists in the community about the dangers of distracted driving and observing speed limits.
“We just need to remind people of where they’re at, what’s going on. But we will maintain our typical enforcement because that’s usually the best way to gain compliance,” Upkes said.