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Over the recent months the city has been in the process of working on a Safe Streets For All project, designed to decrease the amount of serious and fatal accidents in the city. This is an ongoing process, and at the most recent Planning Commission meeting that process was presented by city planner, Jason Kulaszewski.
Kulaszewski's presentation outlined the Safe Streets For All process and its focus on reducing serious and fatal accidents on the city's transportation network.
"By making the streets safer for people and vehicles through improved street design, safer speeds, and post-crash response and analysis, the effort aims to reduce Jamestown's fatal accidents to zero," Kulaszewski told the Post-Journal. "This process includes reviewing existing crash data, high risk areas, and community engagement to talk to residents about where they have experienced or seen unsafe behavior on the roads in the city."
The process identified a High Injury Network and Priority Investment Network, showing the places where the city should prioritize projects aimed to make the streets safer, and work towards "Vision Zero" for eliminating fatal accidents.
Safe Streets For All is funded by the United States Department of Transportation through a planning grant. The project began in December 2025 and is scheduled to be finished in June 2027. Public engagement activities have been ongoing since March, with another public meeting scheduled for August 26 at the Prendergast Library from 5 p.m. to 6:30 p.m.
Kulaszewski's presentation presented various options to the planning commission as to how the "Vision Zero" goal would be achieved, including reducing speed limits, improved signage, better crosswalks, changing traffic patterns, improved lighting, as well as public education about traffic safety. Members of the Planning Commission and public then reviewed the top locations based on the Priority Investment Network and High Injury Network and shared their top locations and why they thought those locations were the highest priority.
Top locations identified by the Planning Commission members include the intersection of Third and Fourth Street, Main Street and Washington Street, the area around Love Elementary School, Main Street and Eighth Street, West Fifth and West Sixth Streets, Harrison Street and Winsor Street, Fourth Street and Prendergast Avenue, Foote Avenue and Allen Street, a potential bike path by Jones and Gifford Avenue, along with a few areas that are not already on the Safe Streets For All list.
Common problems identified in these areas, some of which were identified by multiple members, included congestion, traffic confusion, speed, and drop off areas for schools. Other ideas brought up included implementing a 25 mile per hour speed limit city-wide to help with speed and any potential confusion. Kulaszewski noted that anything like that is not necessarily out of the question but would require collaboration between the state and county as well.
"The project on Second Street right now is also a state project, so New York state is not necessarily against that," Kulaszewski said. "And they've given us feedback on all of this stuff too, what they need is time to plan so they're thinking about these things as they're developing projects. My opinion is I don't think any of that is too out of the realm, it would just involve coordinating with, since the state owns some streets, the county has some responsibility over some of our roads, so all of these projects will take some coordination among different entities too."
The potential for the city to have a street that does not have any vehicles and is only for pedestrians was also suggested. Kulaszewski said something similar was suggested for First Street as a part of the city's Downtown Revitalization Initiative plans, for something like a pedestrian area. Kulaszewski added he has gotten feedback through email about similar ideas as well, such as streets in Europe that have similar concepts and are designated for shops and designed as a place for people instead of cars.
More information on Safe Streets For All, including opportunities for the public to participate, such as the upcoming August 26 meeting, can be found at jamestownny.gov/safe-streets-4-all/.