National Transportation Secretary says federal money could help Texas fix roadway issues
The National Roadway Safety Strategy or NRSS is dedicating six billion dollars to states around the country to improve roads, bridges and highways.
SAN ANTONIO (KABB/WOAI) - After a back and forth between the state and the city of San Antonio, the state has decided to take control of Broadway, which means the changes voters were hoping to see may not happen.
But a federal program could change that.
"We fought pretty hard with the city to get bike lanes on Broadway south of Hildebrand," says avid cyclist Bryan Martin.
Martin is just one of many cyclists in San Antonio who love to bike Broadway.
That's why he and Bike San Antonio were at the forefront of the 2017 bond package dedicated to make $40 million improvements to the busy drag.
But now that the Transportation Commission has approved giving the state ownership of a portion of Broadway, that means the roadway will remain a six-lane section for vehicles as it was originally built.
"Why do we have traffic fatalities? Because our roads are designed from the 1950s and we have to put these roads on a diet," says Martin. "You're not on 281, you're not on 410, you're inside a city corridor, you need to be respectful, you need to go the speed limit. If you have six lanes of travel and a 35 mile per hour speed limit, you think people are going to go 35 or are they going to go 45 or more?"
That's the motivation behind a federal initiative introduced Thursday, it's creation was spurred by an increase in road fatalities in 2020.
The National Roadway Safety Strategy (NRSS) is dedicating $6 billion to states around the country to improve roads, bridges and highways.
KABB/WOAI talked to the Department of Transportation deputy secretary about how national dollars could benefit Texas.
"Some of those funds will flow directly to the states, but then there are a lot of opportunities for localities like San Antonio to compete for dollars," says Deputy Transportation Secretary Polly Trottenberg.
The Department of Transportation says because traffic deaths among people who walk or bike are increasing more sharply than for people who drive, they want to get those funds here as soon as possible.
"Some of the road and bridge dollars are already starting to flow to Texas. We'll be announcing some of the grant programs so cities like San Antonio will have an opportunity to compete for some of those that we'll be rolling out in the coming weeks," says Trottenberg.
Martin says that money could help in more ways than one.
"Federal dollars would help because we could put those things toward better sidewalks, better lighting in communities and that's really what those federal dollars were meant for," says Martin.
The deputy secretary says 3,900 people died on Texas roadways last year and that the state has some of the highest roadway deaths in the country.
If you want to see the full details of the initiative, click here.
