Plans to improve both pedestrian and driver safety in the city under the Safe Streets For All project are continuing, and city principal planner Jason Kulaszewski gave an update as to what is happening with these plans to the planning commission during their February meeting.

Kulaszewski said a steering committee meeting has been held and they are in the process of reviewing an outreach plan with their consultants.

“They’ve provided some initial analysis of data that they have related to severe car crashes and fatal pedestrian injuries, so collectively we reviewed that data on a map,” Kulaszewski said. “We’ll be sharing that data through the website, because we are just kicking off this project and basically throughout the summer we want to continue to engage and have people give us feedback on the problem areas in the city.”

There will be a way to provide that feedback online, Kulaszewski said, and an event is planned at the Prendergast Library in May.

He said the library has a community day and they will be there, and they are also planning a Safe Streets For All mural in conjunction with the library near Sixth Street, at the crossing between the library and Dow Park.

“So when pedestrians come to the crossing they will hit a button and it will light up the cross walk sign so drivers will see there’s someone trying to cross there,” Kulaszewski said.

They are also working on a plan for an event with Jamestown Community College, but Kulaszewski added that everything is still in the early stages and they are still working on figuring out events. A second steering committee meeting is scheduled for mid to late March to work more on the outreach plan and website.

“Ultimately, what we’re hoping to get over the summer are the top 10 to 12 biggest problem areas in the city related to pedestrian related incidents so that there can be some design work that will help us then apply for funding,” Kulaszewski said. “So, we’re going to have about 10 areas where they can do some preliminary like 10% design work to give us concepts and there will be three sites selected to give 30% design to actually show what some of the interventions that we would hope to see are.”

They also want to see if some of those spots are also places where the Department of Public Works may already have projects happening, and if they have a project planned, maybe some of the design work can help get funding or make the project better, so they can align their work.

Kulaszewski reported that the first steering committee meeting went well and he will be able to provide a short update to the commission each month, and more information will be available on the city’s website as well. There will also be the availability for community members to sign up to be on a mailing list to get frequent updates on the project and provide information on road hazards that need to be addressed.