Safe Streets for All Safety Action Plan

Project Overview

The City of Beatrice, Nebraska, has developed a Safe Streets for All (SS4A) Safety Action Plan. This project has developed a safety action plan to eliminate all fatal crashes and dramatically reduce severe injury crashes for all users of Beatrice’s highway, street, sidewalk, and trail transportation network.

The outcome of this plan provides an overview of the following:

• Historical crash data for the city of Beatrice
• Development of applicable countermeasures
• Equitable transportation access and use solutions
• Focused pedestrian/bicycle improvements
• Deployment of smart technologies to prioritize safe mobility

Project Advisory Team

• Tobias Tempelmeyer, City Administrator
• James Burroughs, City Engineer
• Sergeant Brian Carver, Beatrice Police Department
• Dr. Jackie Nielsen, Beatrice Public Schools
• Mike McLain, Beatrice City Council
• Jessica Javorsky, Nebraska Department of Education

What is a Safe Streets for All (SS4A) - Safety Action Plan?

The U.S. Department of Transportation (USDOT) established the Safe Streets and Roads for All discretionary program in 2022 with $5 billion appropriated over the next five years (2022-2026). The City of Beatrice successfully obtained SS4A grant dollars in fall 2023 and officially kicked off the project in January 2024.

The SS4A program follows the Safe System Approach to achieve the goal of zero roadway deaths and reduce severe injury crashes in a community.

Principles of a Safe System Approach

A Safe System Approach incorporates the following principles:

• Death and Serious Injuries are Unacceptable
• Humans Make Mistakes
• Humans Are Vulnerable
• Responsibility is Shared
• Safety is Proactive
• Redundancy is Crucial

Objectives of a Safe System Approach 

The Safe System Approach Principles outlined above also complement five critical objectives that will be achieved through the adoption of Beatrice’s SS4A Safety Action Plan:

• Safer People - Encourage safe, responsible driving and behavior by people who use Beatrice’s roads and create conditions that prioritize their ability to reach their destination unharmed.
• Safer Roads - Design roadway environments in Beatrice to mitigate human mistakes and account for injury tolerances, to encourage safer behaviors, and to facilitate safe travel by the most vulnerable users in the community.
• Safer Vehicles - Expand Beatrice’s availability of vehicle systems and features that help to prevent crashes and minimize the impact of crashes on both occupants and non-occupants.
• Safer Speeds - Promote safer speeds on all Beatrice streets through a combination of thoughtful, equitable, context-appropriate roadway design, appropriate speed-limit setting, targeted education, outreach campaigns, and enforcement.
• Post-Crash Care - Enhance the survivability of crashes through expedient access to emergency medical care, while creating a safe working environment for vital first responders and preventing secondary crashes through robust traffic incident management practices.

What Does An Equitable Transportation System Look Like?

A critical part of developing the Beatrice SS4A Safety Action Plan is identifying and addressing any gaps in service, access, or use of the community’s transportation system by disproportionately impacted populations.

Through the development of this plan, project team members will assess existing crash data for the city of Beatrice and overlay that information with where disproportionately impacted populations, such as non-English-speaking, low to moderate income, older adults, children, and/or physically or mentally disabled individuals, live in the community.

The final plan will address any identified gaps or threats to these populations and will recommend actions and policies the City can adopt to improve transportation accessibility, use, and safety for all residents of Beatrice.

Contact Information

Public input is extremely important to the project, and all residents of Beatrice are encouraged to participate in upcoming public meetings to provide their input to the project team.

For more information about the project or to share your feedback with the planning team, please contact Mark Lutjeharms, Project Manager at mlutjeharms@jeo.com or (402) 435-3080.