Comprehensive Safety Action Plan - Safe Streets and Roads

Project Overview The City of Carmel, Indiana has received a Safe Streets for All ("SS4A") Planning and Demonstration Grant to develop a comprehensive safety action plan. Our city is committed to creating a safe and inclusive environment for all road users, and this grant opportunity perfectly aligns with our goals. With the funding from the SS4A grant, our aim is to formulate an action plan featuring well-defined projects and strategies aimed at preventing roadway fatalities and serious injuries within our city's boundaries. Existing Roadway Safety Challenges The City of Carmel is facing pressing roadway safety challenges that demand immediate attention. While our connectivity to highways like US Route 31 and Interstate 465 offers convenient access to regional transportation networks, it also poses safety risks. The increased traffic volume during peak travel times contributes to heightened congestion levels, amplifying the risk of crashes due to slower and erratic traffic flow. Vulnerable road user safety is another challenge the city faces, as evidenced by a recent fatal bicycle crash at Towne Road and Main Street in May 2024. There are many pedestrian and bicycle trip generators in Carmel, such as the Monon Greenway trail, city schools and libraries, and the Carmel Arts and Design District. Analyzing data from the Fatality and Injury Reporting System Tool (FIRST) for the period of 2017 to 2021, we found 16 fatalities resulting from fatal crashes in the city, translating to a fatality rate of 3.14 per 100,000 population. Underserved Communities The City of Carmel is committed to ensuring fairness and inclusivity in the community's transportation initiative. Throughout Carmel's planning and program development, a significant emphasis has been placed on Environmental Justice (EJ) and Equity in transportation planning. These principles have been integral to shaping Carmel's initiatives over time. According to the United States Department of Transportation's Equitable Transportation Community Explorer (ETCE) tool, 4.37% of Carmel's population falls under the disadvantaged/underserved category based on survey tract information from the USDOT ETC Explorer tool. City of Carmel Comprehensive Safety Action Plan To address these pressing safety challenges, the City of Carmel requires a comprehensive safety action plan. This plan will include strategies for managing traffic flow, reducing congestion, and improving driver behavior through education, enforcement, and traffic control measures. Evaluating intersection design, identifying necessary traffic control devices, and establishing designated crosswalks can help improve safety for both motorists and pedestrians. Additionally, raising driver awareness about the risks associated with excessive speeds and failure to yield will be a major objective of the safety plan. By developing a comprehensive safety plan that addresses the specific concerns related to roadway connectivity, traffic congestion, speeding, and pedestrian safety, the City of Carmel can work towards creating safer roadways and reducing the number of injury and fatality-related crashes. The key components of the action plan will: Provide an overview of City of Carmel's SS4A planning process. Share the results of a successful and wide-ranging stakeholder and public outreach effort and summarize what the city learned. Establish a High-Injury Network (HIN) and Hotspot Intersections methodology that evaluates the roadway segments and intersections within the city limits with higher numbers of fatal and serious-injury (FSI) crashes. Summarize five years of data—why, when, how, where fatalities and injury crashes occur, the populations involved, and behavioral characteristics of crashes. Demonstrate city's efforts to consider equity seriously as part of the planning process by discussing the experiences of traditionally underserved populations and understanding geographic trends such as the correlations between FSI crashes and traditionally underserved population communities. Review the city's existing policies, plans, and guidelines to identify opportunities for prioritizing transportation safety. Establish a framework to recommend a list of potential safety projects by considering the safety analysis, equity analysis, and public engagement findings. Outline several safety countermeasures and describe where they might be deployed for maximum effectiveness. Recommend a variety of other, non-project strategic improvements that improve safety by changing behavior and identifying the responsible parties to implement these efforts. Detail how the plan will be updated in the future, how the city's effectiveness at implementing the plan will be measured, and how these updates will be demonstrated to the public and other stakeholders. Demonstration Activities The City of Carmel plans to address the safety of vulnerable road users by constructing raised pedestrian crosswalks at seventeen roundabouts along Hazel Dell Road, Towne Road, and Main Street. The Raised crosswalks are a proven method of reducing vehicular speed and pedestrian crashes at roundabout intersections. Installing raised crosswalks in general can have a crash reduction factor of up to 46%, and historically they have shown great effectiveness in improving intersection safety in Carmel. The City plans to use local and grant funding opportunities as part of a systemic approach towards deploying raised crosswalks and RRFBs in the future at the 140+ roundabouts in Carmel. Work has already begun installing the raised pedestrian crosswalks and future roundabouts in construction and planned will have the raised pedestrian crosswalks. The City of Carmel is steadfast in its commitment to forging safer roadways, preventing injury and fatality crashes, and cultivating a transportation system that prioritizes equity for all residents. The SS4A planning and demonstration grant serves as a pivotal funding resource in the pursuit of these commitments.