Martinsville to seek federal funding for pedestrian safety initiatives

The city of Martinsville plans to apply for a federal grant to help fund street and pedestrian safety initiatives.

Known as the Safe Streets 4 All Safety Action Planning Grant, it’s part of a $1.2 billion pool administered by the U.S. Department of Transportation. Safe Streets 4 All is an infrastructure program meant to help communities plan and execute projects meant to improve streets for pedestrians and motorists.

Of the total $1.2 billion, $780 million is earmarked for construction projects, while $4.6 million is for creating new action plans or editing existing plans. Martinsville plans to apply for funding to create its own action plan.

Martinsville city staff predicts that each successful applicant would receive at least $200,000.

The city is pursuing the grant alongside the West Piedmont Planning District Commission and the Harvest Foundation. The planning district commission would serve as grant administrator if the application is approved.

[Disclosure: The Harvest Foundation is one of our donors, but donors have no say in news decisions; see our policy .]

According to information provided by the city, the proposed action plan would focus on Martinsville’s Uptown Business District. Having a safety action plan in place would make the city “more competitive on future funding opportunities from a wide range of sources,” it said.

According to Martinsville staff, this includes federal, state and private funding.

If the application is approved, the city will have 24 months to create an actionable plan.

The grant would come with a 20% match that must be from non-federal sources.

This effort to create an action plan comes several months after the city experimented with replacing several traffic lights with stop signs in the Uptown District.

City officials hoped that the transition would encourage pedestrian traffic by forcing motorists to slow down at strategic intersections, including Moss and West Church streets, Bridge and East Church streets, East Church and Walnut streets, East Church and Broad streets, and West Main and Wall streets.

Officials hoped to avoid situations in which motorists could speed through the area after only getting green lights. But after observing traffic patterns, they noticed that some motorists were ignoring the stop signs, prompting them to transition back to stop lights in April.

City Manager Aretha Ferrell-Benavides said the move back to stop lights does not mean the city was giving up on making Martinsville more pedestrian-friendly.

The deadline for grant submission is Aug. 29.

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