(The Center Square) – California’s roads will soon see improvements in bicycle and pedestrian safety, thanks to more than $140 million in federal money, according to Gov. Gavin Newsom’s office.
“We’re reshaping traffic safety in California,” Newsom said in a news release. “Our investments are making our roads safer, our communities stronger, and our infrastructure more resilient. While there’s still more work to do, we’re doing it together, up and down the state, making smart, targeted improvements that will protect Californians for years to come.”
According to Newsom’s office, $22.3 million of the federal money is going to 20 projects managed by the California Highway Patrol. These programs include efforts that combat drunk and distracted driving, motorcycle safety, traffic safety and other transportation safety efforts.
“We focus on increasing the safety of all the motoring public throughout the state of California,” CHP Lt. Matt Gutierrez told The Center Square. “This grant, in particular, allows us to go above and beyond to help not just continue the enforcement side of impaired driving prevention but also the education across agencies to help train new officers coming into the profession.”
Gutierrez added that the California Highway Patrol often assists in training officers from other law enforcement agencies. He said the federal grant helps to pay for that training.
“Agencies look to us from across the country to help train them on impaired driving enforcement, and they come to us to help take them to another level of enforcement,” Gutierrez told The Center Square. “This grant absolutely helps to pull that off.”
The $140 million, which comes from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, goes to local police and sheriff’s offices across the state. The money also goes to courts, college or university departments or programs, local fire departments and local health and human services departments for a wide range of services. These include providing emergency medical services, instituting new pedestrian safety and bicycling safety measures. Also covered are efforts to prevent drug-impaired driving and other services provided by publicly-funded agencies in communities up and down the state, according to a list of projects that will receive grant awards from the federal allocation.
In all, 495 grants are being awarded, according to the governor’s office. The allocation for the highway safety program is through multi-year appropriations that is allocated from the 2021 Infrastructure Investments & Jobs Act, or the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, the Office of Transportation Safety told The Center Square. None of the money goes to the state’s high-speed rail, which the state sued the Trump administration over after the Federal Railroad Administration canceled $4 billion that was going to go to the state to continue building the high-speed rail.
“These are really critical programs,” Timothy Weisberg, deputy director of communications and public affairs at the Office of Traffic Safety, told The Center Square. “It’s going to take a comprehensive approach to reduce deaths and serious injuries on our roads. We really think we’re going to move the needle in the direction we need to be headed in.”
According to numbers of traffic injuries compiled by the office, traffic fatalities decreased 11% between 2022 and 2023, falling from 4,539 to 4,061. Alcohol-impaired driving fatalities also fell 4.5%, while passenger deaths from lack of wearing a seatbelt dropped 8.6%.
“California is making bold, data-driven investments that prioritize safety and save lives,” California Secretary of Transportation Toks Omishakin said in a news release. “From equipping first responders with life-saving tools like the ‘Jaws of Life’ and digital alert technology, to supporting groundbreaking emergency care innovations like UCLA’s prehospital blood transfusion pilot, these historic grants reflect our commitment to building a transportation system where every person — whether walking, biking or driving — can travel safely in every community.”
Democratic and Republican legislators who sit on transportation-related committees were not available to answer The Center Square’s questions before deadline on Wednesday.
