PRESS RELEASE – FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact: Lisa Estrela-Pedro at lestrela@srpedd.org or Jackie Jones at jjones@srpedd.org for more info.
SRPEDD Announces a 21-day Public Comment Period and Virtual Public Meeting on Wednesday, June 4, 2025, at 4:00 pm to hear comments on the release of the Draft FFY2026 UPWP staff work plan and Draft Safe Streets for All – Regional Safety Action Plan.
May 21, 2025 – The Southeastern Massachusetts Metropolitan Planning Organization (SMMPO)’s draft FFY2026 Unified Planning Work Program (UPWP) is being released to a 21-day public comment period. The UPWP is the planning document listing the transportation-related projects, technical assistance, and other activities that SMMPO staff at the Southeastern Regional Planning and Economic Development District (SRPEDD) will undertake during the upcoming federal fiscal year to support the goals and actions established in the Regional Transportation Plan, Moving Forward 2050. Ongoing planning activities include traffic data collection and analysis, pavement management analysis, community technical assistance, transit and active transportation project planning, public engagement, and development of the Transportation Improvement Program (TIP). Special projects outlined in the draft UPWP to be undertaken in the October 1, 2025 through September 30, 2026 period include:
- a Food Access and Security in Transportation Plan that will collect and map data on grocery stores, bodegas, food pantries, farmers markets, and other food security infrastructure locations in Southeastern Massachusetts to assess gaps in transit and active transportation access to food;
- an Age-Friendly Mobility Plan that will identify needs, set priorities, and recommendations for future SRPEDD technical assistance work in transportation-related improvements that encourage healthy aging in Southeastern Massachusetts communities;
- an Economic Impact Analysis of the Southeastern Regional Transit Authority’s fare free program;
- a Corridor Study of Pleasant Street in Fall River;
- development of a database to prioritize flood-prone roadways and culvert replacements;
- Evacuation planning tabletop exercises;
- an update of the region’s Congestion Management Plan; and
- a Parking Lot Utilization Plan that will collect and map parking usage rate data to help communities make informed, sustainable, and cost-effective parking policies and land use decisions.
Additionally, the SMMPO’s draft Regional Safety Action Plan (RSAP), developed through a federal Safe Streets and Roads for All (SS4A) grant, is being released to a 21-day public comment period. From 2019–2023, Southeastern Massachusetts experienced 1,828 serious vehicle-involved crashes resulting in 245 deaths and 1,623 severe injuries. To address this, the SMMPO led by SRPEDD, together with consulting firms Toole and VHB and an interdisciplinary Task Force, developed a Vision Zero-aligned Regional Safety Action Plan. The plan aims to reduce fatal and serious injury crashes by 35% by 2040—and ultimately reach zero—using a Safe Systems Approach that emphasizes safer road design, speed management, and protection for vulnerable users like pedestrians, cyclists, and transit riders.
The Plan was informed by crash data analysis and public engagement, including 300+ survey responses, community event tabling, and focus groups which targeted youth, low-income, and Limited English Proficient road users. It identifies high-risk corridors and common crash factors in the region such as speeding and distracted driving and presents a comprehensive toolkit of various engineering and safety solutions—including short to long term and low to higher cost options—to address these high crash-risk and high-injury areas. Low-cost, short-term solutions include high-visibility crosswalks, pavement markings, signage, signal timing changes, and trimming vegetation that blocks sight lines. The Plan also proposes non-engineering solutions such as educational campaigns and enforcement strategies.
New Bedford, Fall River, and Taunton were identified as having the highest number of serious crashes, with Middleborough and Dartmouth showing higher crash severity rates per capita. The RSAP ranks and prioritizes potential safety projects at both the regional and municipal levels to ensure a wide array of opportunities for funding for all 27 communities. This Action Plan identifies locations within each community in the SMMPO region that are eligible to apply for implementation or demonstration project federal SS4A funding to make streets safer. The current grant round closes on June 26, 2025 and communities are encouraged to reach out to SMMPO staff for guidance. The RSAP is being released for public review to gather local feedback and ensure alignment with municipal needs.
The RSAP was developed in collaboration with a diverse Regional Task Force of municipal officials, community leaders, transit professionals, and public health advocates. Their role continues into implementation of the Plan as stewards of safer streets across Southeastern Massachusetts.
All of this work helps support the region’s 27 communities toward building a safer, and more accessible, connected, reliable, and resilient transportation system for all mode users.
A virtual public meeting on the draft UPWP and RSAP will be held remotely on Wednesday, June 4, 2025 , at 4:00 pm. Everyone is welcome to attend, ask questions and offer comments, but attendance is not necessary to offer input or comment. More options to offer comments can be found below.
The meeting will be conducted through ZOOM. This link provides the information to allow participants to connect to the meeting through a computer, smart phone or regular telephone: https://support.zoom.us/hc/en-us/categories/200101697.
The direct link to the public meeting:
https://us02web.zoom.us/j/81435133182?pwd=qPegiVuEDNBD20UpaieCqhXWUxSaoT.1
Meeting ID: 814 3513 3182
Meeting Password: 372831
The Draft FFY2026 UPWP and Draft Safety Action Plan will have a 21-day public comment period and final versions will be endorsed at the next SMMPO meeting which is scheduled for June 17th. More detailed information on the two documents can be found on SRPEDD’s website www.srpedd.org at the following links: Draft FFY2026 UPWP and Draft Regional Safety Action Plan.
Comments are encouraged and may be offered by a variety of methods including: via e-mail at lestrela@srpedd.org; our website at https://srpedd.org/contact-us/; our Facebook page at https://www.facebook.com/SRPEDD/; or Twitter @SRPEDD_NEWS at https://twitter.com/SRPEDD_NEWS
The SMMPO, through SRPEDD, provides reasonable accommodations, including language assistance and/or auxiliary aids and services free of charge, upon request and as available. For accommodation or language assistance, please contact SRPEDD’s Title VI Coordinator by phone (508 824-1367), dial 711 to use MassRelay, or by email at aduarte@srpedd.org. Requests should be made as soon as possible prior to the meeting.
# # #
Our 3rd Safe Streets and Roads for All (SS4A) Regional Safety Action Plan Task Force meeting will be on Tuesday, November 5, 2pm ET, in a hybrid format; via Zoom at https://us02web.zoom.us/j/88069289250?pwd=gKQ8DAX02m36lkVYbIHNoByc7zGnWu.1 or in-person at our office, 88 Broadway, Taunton.
We will be providing an update on the data analyses being conducted by our consulting partner, Toole Design, as well as review the high injury network (HIN) maps that have been developed from historic crash data, highlighting the corridors in the region with the most fatality/serious injury crashes. We will also be providing an update on the different outreach activities underway to ensure that all communities and road user groups are able to provide input into our Regional Safety Action Plan. We look forward to receiving your continued feedback and guidance in all of these areas.
If you have any questions or concerns about the Safe Streets and Roads for All initiative, please feel free to reach out to Austin Horowitz by email ahorowitz@srpedd.org or telephone 508-824-1367 ext 235.
Posted on July 23, 2024 at 2:03 PM.
SRPEDD Transportation Dept. is inviting you to a scheduled Zoom meeting.
Topic: SS4A Task Force Kick-off
Time: May 7, 2024 03:00 PM Eastern Time (US and Canada)
Join Zoom Meeting
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Meeting ID: 882 8506 5092
Passcode: 553225
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Posted on April 19, 2024 at 2:28 PM.