The Plan Seeks to Reduce Serious Injury and Fatal Crashes by Building a Safety-Oriented Transportation System

The Cuyahoga County Planning Commission (County Planning) in collaboration with Cuyahoga County is pleased to announce receipt of a Safe Streets & Roads for All (SS4A) grant to fund the development of a Comprehensive Safety Action Plan for Cuyahoga County. Our goal is to develop a plan that commits to a culture of safety and empowers our local communities and transportation agencies to make the decisions needed to reduce fatalities and serious injuries by adopting policies and building systems that enhance safety.

Cuyahoga County is home to 1.2 million residents that live in highly developed urban areas, suburban communities, and semi-rural areas. Over the five years from 2017-2021, there have been 484 persons killed in fatal crashes in Cuyahoga County—events that upend lives, families, and communities—and that number is moving in the wrong direction. The number of persons killed in fatal crashes has more than doubled from 2018 to 2021, and when analyzed by race, 54% of those killed in fatal crashes were Black, despite those identifying as Black or African American alone comprising just 29% of Cuyahoga County’s total population.

“The safety of our roadways is a critical piece of our transportation system and remains a top concern for leaders across the County,” said Cuyahoga County Executive Chris Ronayne. “With both data analysis and action-oriented components, the Safe Streets and Roads for All Grant will allow the Cuyahoga County Planning Commission to develop strategies to help municipalities put their best foot forward on paths to safer travels.”

The Cuyahoga County Comprehensive Safety Action Plan will bolster efforts to address safety in our transportation network. The plan will include a detailed safety analysis of existing crashes; deep community engagement; recommended infrastructure and non-infrastructure changes to address safety concerns; an understanding of how crashes and recommended changes impact racial, socio-economic, and mobility groups; and a comprehensive action plan that combines this information.

“Through this planning process, we will seek to engage directly with communities of color, people of various income levels, residents of different geographies, and users of alternate transportation modes,” said Mary Cierebiej, Executive Director of the Cuyahoga County Planning Commission. “We intend to partner with communities and use a wide range of engagement methods to ensure meaningful feedback, and to identify those safety issues that may not show up in crash data but that are experienced by residents in their daily lives.”

A number of communities within Cuyahoga County have already completed or are in the process of completing Safety Action Plans, either using local funds or using funds provided through previous DOT SS4A grants. These communities include the Cities of Cleveland, Lakewood, and Cleveland Heights. The Cuyahoga County Comprehensive Safety Action Plan will gather data for the County as a whole—including these jurisdictions—to identify a high injury network regardless of municipal borders. We will layer in local findings and recommendations from jurisdictional plans into one comprehensive plan that builds upon the work of individual municipalities.

County Planning was awarded $600,000 in SS4A funding, which will be used to engage a qualified consultant to develop the Cuyahoga County Comprehensive Safety Action Plan.