TO: HONORABLE MAYOR
AND CITY COUNCIL
FROM: John Ristow
SUBJECT: See Below DATE: November 12, 2024
Approved
Date:
11/18/24
COUNCIL DISTRICT: Citywide
SUBJECT: Acceptance of United States Department of Transportation Safe Streets and Roads for All Grants
RECOMMENDATION
Adopt a resolution authorizing the City Manager or her designee to negotiate and execute grant agreements and all documents necessary to effectuate the grant agreements with the United States Department of Transportation in an amount not to exceed $21,401,089 in Safe Streets and Roads for All grant funding for the following projects:
a) Fiscal Year 2022-2023 award in an amount not to exceed $12,901,089 for the San José Safety Improvements at Key Intersections Implementation Project, with a local match of $3,225,273; and
b) Fiscal Year 2023-2024 award in an amount not to exceed $8,500,000 for the San José Speed Safety Camera Demonstration Project, with a local match of $2,125,000.
SUMMARY AND OUTCOME
Acceptance of the grant funds will provide the City with federal Safe Streets and Roads for All (SS4A) program funding from the United States Department of Transportation (USDOT) for the following two projects:
1. San José Safety Improvements at Key Intersections Implementation Project, in an amount not to exceed $12,901,089 from the Fiscal Year (FY) 2022-2023 SS4A program; and
2. San José Speed Safety Camera Demonstration Project, in an amount not to exceed $8,500,000 from the FY 2023-2024 SS4A program.
COUNCIL AGENDA: 12/3/24
FILE: 24-2276
ITEM: 5.1
HONORABLE MAYOR AND CITY COUNCIL
November 12, 2024
Subject: Acceptance of United States Department of Transportation Safe Streets and Roads for All Grants
The SS4A awards will provide $21,401,089 in federal grant funding from the USDOT for projects and programs that address key City priorities and goals of safety, multimodal mobility, and equity.
BACKGROUND
Vision Zero is the City’s transportation initiative focused on eliminating traffic fatalities and severe injuries while working to provide safe mobility on the City’s roadways. Vision Zero traffic safety has been highlighted in the City Council’s Increasing Community Safety Focus Area. In February of 2020, the City Council approved the 2020 Vision Zero Action Plan, including strategies focused on eliminating fatalities and reducing severe injuries while providing safe mobility on our roadways.
The City’s Department of Transportation actively pursues grant funds for projects that support City and departmental goals and submitted applications for consideration to the USDOT under the FY 2022-2023 and FY 2023-2024 SS4A programs to address Vision Zero Action Plan goals.
The USDOT informed the City of its intent to award both applications submitted for consideration under the SS4A FY 2022-2023 and FY 2023-2024 programs.
ANALYSIS
The Bipartisan Infrastructure Law established the SS4A discretionary program with $5 billion in appropriated funds over five years for FYs 2022-2026. The SS4A program funds regional, local, and Tribal initiatives through grants to prevent roadway deaths and serious injuries. Over $2 billion is still available for future funding rounds.
The SS4A program supports the USDOT’s National Roadway Safety Strategy and our goal of zero roadway deaths using a Safe Systems Approach.
Upon City Council approval, the City will finalize efforts to enter into the required agreements with the USDOT that would allow the City to be eligible to receive federal SS4A funding to support City efforts to attain our Vision Zero safety goals.
San José Safety Improvements at Key Intersections – Implementation Project
This project will implement safety improvements at four key intersections in the City’s Vision Zero High Injury Network as follows:
HONORABLE MAYOR AND CITY COUNCIL
November 12, 2024
Subject: Acceptance of United States Department of Transportation Safe Streets and Roads for All Grants
1. Curtner Avenue from Canoas Garden Avenue to Highway 87;
2. Monterey Road and Curtner Avenue / Tully Road;
3. Capitol Expressway and Senter Road; and,
4. East Santa Clara Street and 11th Street.
These intersections have a high frequency of crashes involving pedestrians and bicyclists, resulting in fatalities or severe injuries. All project locations are also transit hubs and transfer points. Several project locations previously piloted temporary quick- build treatments for short-term mitigation and are in need of substantial permanent capital improvements to reduce fatal and serious-injury crashes. Speeding and red-light running are the top two traffic violations at the four proposed locations. The table below summarizes proposed improvements at each of the four locations.
Location
Number of
Deaths or
Severe
Injuries over
five-years
(2017- 2021)
Total
(# of bike or
pedestrian)
Proposed Improvements
Curtner Avenue from
Canoas Garden Avenue
to Highway 87
3 (2)
• Sidewalk gap closure
• Additional crosswalk at traffic signal
• Raised (sidewalk level) protected bike lanes
Monterey Road and
Curtner Avenue/
Tully Road
7 (5)
• Protected intersection, includes curb
extensions at all four corners with raised
protected bike lanes
Capitol Expressway and
Senter Road 7 (1) • Protected intersection with slip ramp closure East Santa Clara Street
and 11th Street 2 (2) • Curb extension and pedestrian refuge island • Raised protected bike lane
San José Speed Safety Camera - Demonstration Project
The term “demonstration project” as used here refers to a new kind of federal street safety grant under the USDOT SS4A program that highlights the use of temporary materials and has a limited life of a maximum of 60 months. The quick deployment and use of temporary materials is an effective strategy included in the City’s Vision Zero Action Plan. In 2023, California enacted Assembly Bill (AB) 645 that authorized the installation and piloting of speed safety camera systems in San José and included a 60- month maximum timeline. This demonstration project will allow the City to pilot automated speed camera deployment in an effort to slow driver speeds and reduce fatal
HONORABLE MAYOR AND CITY COUNCIL
November 12, 2024
Subject: Acceptance of United States Department of Transportation Safe Streets and Roads for All Grants
and severe injury crashes. Thirty-three camera locations will be selected based on various factors, including frequency of speeding defined as 11 miles per hour or more over the posted speed limit, red-light running, and pedestrian crashes and will be geographically distributed across neighborhoods of varying income levels and racial composition.
This demonstration project includes the five deliverables outlined below.
A. Speed Safety Systems
Demonstration of 33 cameras for up to 60 months, inclusive of all hardware, installation, maintenance, power, data collection, and services.
B. Data Collection and Analysis
Data collection before/after at speed safety system locations and control locations (locations that do not have speed safety systems, but are similar to ones that do), and analysis. Data collection and analysis to measure the project’s success and impact on the development of a community’s Comprehensive Safety Action Plan are a requirement of the grant program.
C. Public Outreach and Engagement
Consultant marketing campaign, including design, translation, and digital and print ads that satisfies the outreach requirements of AB 645, plus regional noticing.
D. Strategic Supplemental Action Plan: Traffic Calming
Strategic Supplemental Action Plans are a requirement of demonstration grants.
Deliverables expected include an overview, a before/after study of effectiveness, and an updated action plan.
1 Scope includes hiring a consultant to do this work and help inform where to install traffic calming improvements. “Traffic calming” here is used to mean the AB 645 definition under California Vehicle Code sec. 4 article 3. Speed Safety System Pilot Program 22425 (p) (2) (A) “Traffic-calming measures” include, but are not limited to, bicycle lanes, chicanes, chokers, curb extensions, flashing beacons for school zone speed limits, lane reductions, median islands, raised crosswalks, roundabouts, speed humps or speed tables, and traffic circles.
1 https://www.transportation.gov/grants/ss4a/planning-and-demonstration-activities#demonstration-activity- requirements
HONORABLE MAYOR AND CITY COUNCIL
November 12, 2024
Subject: Acceptance of United States Department of Transportation Safe Streets and Roads for All Grants
E. Racial Equity/Socioeconomic Assessment
This deliverable will be informed by racial equity and socioeconomic assessments studies that have been done in other cities, often commissioned by cities and performed by academics.
2 Racial Equity Impact Analysis
Significant consideration of racial and socioeconomic equity has been taken for both grant projects. According to the SS4A website, equity is the second highest criteria for grant selection following safety impact.
San José Safety Improvements at Key Intersections
• USDOT Equitable Transportation Community Explorer geographies were an important input for determining which project candidate locations to include. The locations are also in high-scoring San José Equity Atlas geographies.
• Monterey Road and Curtner Avenue/Tully Road was featured by the United States Federal Highway Administration in a September 2024 case study “Promising Practices to Address Road Safety among People Experiencing Homelessness”
3 for being a good example of cities using the Safe Systems Approach to partner with other agencies to use cross departmental data sharing to make streets safer for our most vulnerable road users. The County of Santa Clara Medical Examiner-Coroner, who also sits on the San José Vision Zero Task Force, shares data with San José Department of Transportation to determine if a decedent meets its definition of homeless. Three pedestrians experiencing homelessness were killed at this intersection in 2021. This SS4A funded safety improvement project may be the first federally funded street safety project to focus on homeless pedestrians. This location is near the HomeFirst Boccardo Reception Center, the City’s largest shelter.
San José Speed Safety Camera Project
• AB 645 language (sec. 22425) on equity dictates that jurisdictions “shall place the speed safety systems in locations that are geographically and socioeconomically diverse” and requires both fee/fine reduction and diversion programs for low-income people who receive citations (sec. 22429). San José will ensure that the speed safety systems are distributed across all 10 City
2 Streetsblog: “UIC Study: Speed cams save lives, but drivers from POC communities get more tickets.” 1/11/22. https://chi.streetsblog.org/2022/01/11/uic-study-speed-cams-save-lives-but-drivers-in-poc-communities-get-more- tickets
3 https://highways.dot.gov/safety/zero-deaths/promising-practices-address-road-safety-among-people-experiencing- homelessness
HONORABLE MAYOR AND CITY COUNCIL
November 12, 2024
Subject: Acceptance of United States Department of Transportation Safe Streets and Roads for All Grants
Council Districts and include locations with varying equity rankings as identified through the San José Equity Atlas.4 Staff applied an equity lens to the location selection process, using the scoring criteria ranging from 1 (lowest percentage of people of color) to 5 (highest percentage of people of color) for race and ranging from 1 (highest income) to 5 (lowest income) for income. These scores are combined and range from 2 to 10 for evaluation. The potential system locations identified through the fatal and severe injury crash analysis span across the City, touching areas with Equity Atlas scores ranging from 2 to 10, with over 50% of the candidate locations falling within the 7 to 10 range. The final selection of the 33 camera system locations will aim to a balance distribution across the City’s socioeconomically diverse communities while prioritizing locations where there are high fatal and severe injury crashes related to speeding.
• San José’s SS4A funding for Racial Equity/Socioeconomic Assessment funds the City to go beyond the state bill’s requirements by including $250,000 for a vendor to conduct a racial and economic equity impact analysis modeled on studies done by other cities.
5 Having the results of this analysis completed using
at least one year of performance data, with years of the program remaining, will enable the City to potentially make changes to the program to improve equity outcomes.
• A consultant or academic working for the City will study the efficacy of innovative equity components of AB 645. Sec. 22429 describes diversion programs for indigent Speed Safety Systems violation recipients. The assessment will describe the use and effectiveness of these provisions and recommend possibilities for more effective implementation where possible. At the conclusion of the demonstration project, the Department of Transportation will work with the vendor to conduct a racial and economic equity impact analysis developed with local stakeholder groups.
Climate Smart San José Analysis
The recommendation in this memorandum aligns with one or more Climate Smart San José energy, water, or mobility goals. Implementation of the SS4A funded safety improvements will allow the Department of Transportation to improve safety for all roadway users, including pedestrians and bicyclist, which may encourage more people to walk and bike, thereby supporting Climate Smart San José goals to reduce vehicle miles traveled and associated greenhouse gas emissions by 2040.
4 https://gis.sanjoseca.gov/maps/equityatlas/
5 For example, Chicago, published in 2022:
https://indigo.uic.edu/articles/report/Red_Light_and_Speed_Cameras_Analyzing_the_Equity_and_Efficacy_of_Chi cago_s_Automated_Camera_Enforcement_Program/22184059?file=39420766
HONORABLE MAYOR AND CITY COUNCIL
November 12, 2024
Subject: Acceptance of United States Department of Transportation Safe Streets and Roads for All Grants
EVALUATION AND FOLLOW-UP
Upon execution of the grant agreements, staff will bring forward recommendations for City Council consideration to recognize and appropriate the grant funding and local match as part of a future budget process.
COST SUMMARY/IMPLICATIONS
Projects will be funded through $21,401,089 in grant funds, with a local match of $5,350,273 from the Building and Structure Construction Tax funds. Pending the execution of both grants, these funds will be programmed through the FY 2024-2025 Mid-Year Report budget process or other future budget process.
A summary and schedule of expenditures and revenues are shown in the table below for each project.
Expenditures and Revenues by Fiscal Year
San José Safety at Key Intersections Implementation Project
Expenses FY 2024-
2025
FY 2025-
2026
FY 2026-
2027
FY 2027-
2028
FY 2028-
2029
Total
Staffing $875,000 $1,375,000 $400,000 $200,000 $379,089 $3,229,089 Contract $0 $0 $5,000,000 $4,672,000 $0 $9,672,000
Grant
Subtotal
$875,000 $1,375,000 $5,400,000 $4,872,000 $379,089 $12,901,089 Local Match1 $125,000 $625,000 $1,000,000 $1,250,000 $225,273 $3,225,273 Project
TOTAL
$1,000,000 $2,000,000 $6,400,000 $6,122,000 $604,362 $16,126,362
Reimbursable
Revenue
$0 $2,000,000 $4,500,000 $5,500,000 $901,089 $12,901,089 TOTAL $0 $2,000,000 $4,500,000 $5,500,000 $901,089 $12,901,089 1The City's contribution is provided by the Building and Structure Construction Tax Fund, as programmed in the 2025-2029 Traffic Capital Improvement Program: $2.425 million under the San José Safety Improvements at Key Intersections project appropriation (A438E) and $800,000 leveraged from the Vision Zero: East San José Safety Improvements for Senter Road project appropriation (A432S).
HONORABLE MAYOR AND CITY COUNCIL
November 12, 2024
Subject: Acceptance of United States Department of Transportation Safe Streets and Roads for All Grants
San José Speed Safety Camera Demonstration Project
2 The City’s contribution is provided by the General Fund under the Personal Services appropriation (A0511).
3The City’s contribution is provided by the Building and Structure Construction Tax Fund, as programmed in the 2025-2029 Traffic Capital Improvement Program under the Speed Safety System Pilot project appropriation (A437X).
COORDINATION
This memorandum has been coordinated with the City Attorney's Office, City Manager’s Budget Office, and the Planning, Building, and Code Enforcement Department.
PUBLIC OUTREACH
This memorandum will be posted on the City’s website for the December 3, 2024 City Council meeting.
COMMISSION RECOMMENDATION AND INPUT
No commission recommendation or input is associated with this action.
Expenses FY 2024-
2025
FY 2025-
2026
FY 2026-
2027
FY 2027-
2028
FY 2028-
2029
Total
Consultant $3,000,000 $2,900,000 $1,560,000 $1,040,000 $0 $8,500,000 Grant
Subtotal
$3,000,000 $2,900,000 $1,560,000 $1,040,000 $0 $8,500,000 Local Match 2
Staffing
$25,000
$25,000
$25,000
$25,000
$25,000
$125,000
Local Match 3
Consultant
$0 $440,000 $520,000 $520,000 $520,000 $2,000,000
Project
TOTAL
$3,025,000 $3,365,000 $2,105,000 $2,105,000 $545,000 $10,625,000
Reimbursable
Revenue
$0 $2,260,000 $2,080,000 $2,080,000 $2,080,000 $8,500,000 TOTAL $0 $2,260,000 $2,080,000 $2,080,000 $2,080,000 $8,500,000
HONORABLE MAYOR AND CITY COUNCIL
November 12, 2024
Subject: Acceptance of United States Department of Transportation Safe Streets and Roads for All Grants
CEQA
Categorically Exempt, File No. ER23-009, CEQA Guideline Section 15301(c) Existing Facilities.
PUBLIC SUBSIDY REPORTING
This item does not include a public subsidy as defined in section 53083 or 53083.1 of the California Government Code or the City’s Open Government Resolution.
/s/
JOHN RISTOW
Director of Transportation
For questions, please contact Devin Gianchandani, Senior Transportation Specialist, at [email protected].