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CLEVELAND HEIGHTS, OHIO—Today, Mayor Kahlil Seren announced that the City of Cleveland Heights has been awarded a $200,000 Safe Streets and Roads for All (SS4A) federal grant from the U.S. Department of Transportation for the development of a Comprehensive and Equitable Safety Action Plan. The funds for this grant were provided as part of the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act to help communities create action plans and implement improvements to prevent roadway deaths and serious injuries.
“This grant will enable us to broadly engage the community and bring together all of our efforts to make our streets safer into a comprehensive, coordinated plan,” Mayor Seren said.
Cleveland Heights was one of fourteen grantees selected in Ohio and the only award in Cuyahoga County. According to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration’s Fatality Analysis Reporting System, twelve traffic-related fatalities occurred in Cleveland Heights from 2016-2020.
“Our Comprehensive and Equitable Safety Action Plan will look at how we can improve safe transportation in our city through the eyes of all users and all demographics,” Cleveland Heights Planning and Economic Development Director Eric Zamft said.
In 2018, Cleveland Heights City Council approved a Complete and Green Streets Policy for Cleveland Heights that outlined steps the city would take to improve safety and comfort for all users of its streets. The National Complete Streets Coalition chose Cleveland Heights’ policy as the best in the nation that year. Recent Complete Streets planning efforts in Cleveland Heights have focused on the Taylor Road Corridor and the proposed Compton Road Greenway.
Cleveland Heights has adopted the goal of Vision Zero—eliminating traffic fatalities and severe injuries among all road users while increasing safe, healthy, and equitable mobility.
In 2022 Cleveland Heights launched its Neighborhood Traffic Calming program to encourage residents to initiate efforts to reduce excessive speeding and traffic volumes on their streets. Through this program, the residents of eight Cleveland Heights streets petitioned for traffic calming and are in the queue for traffic studies.
In November 2022, in pursuit of the City’s Vision Zero goal, Mayor Seren introduced, and City Council passed, an ordinance reclassifying five street sections in Cleveland Heights as local streets, which lowered the speed limit on those street sections from 35 mph to 25 mph.
In the coming weeks, the U.S. Department of Transportation will establish and execute a grant agreement with Cleveland Heights, which will allow the City to access grant funds and begin work.
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