Senators Bob Casey and John Fetterman recently secured roughly $2.4 million in funds under the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (IIJA) to improve traffic safety in Harrisburg and throughout South Central Pennsylvania. The funds will be split into three parts under a US Department of Transportation (USDOT) grant program called Safe Streets and Roads for All.
The funding will be divided like so:
- Lower Paxton Township will get roughly $1.4 million for road safety audits and developing new protocols for traffic safety.
- Harrisburg is getting just under $1 million to retime traffic lights for downtown intersections.
- Gettysburg is getting the remaining $120,000 to develop a new road safety action plan.
The funding for Pennsylvania road safety is likely a response to figures in recent years that show traffic fatalities rising on average in the Commonwealth, even as traffic fatality averages are declining in other states. We’ve recently written about the strange spikes in various highway accidents, including the theory that it’s rooted in the spread of bad driving habits after the pandemic.
In either case, it looks as though lawmakers are taking a targeted approach to mitigating the areas of Pennsylvania where car accident risk is highest.
What Will Retiming Traffic Lights Actually Do?
You might have noticed something unique about Harrisburg’s portion of the USDOT grant. While neighboring areas are taking a broad approach to figuring out traffic issues, we’re getting a sizable bit of funding for a specific fix—changing the timing for downtown traffic lights. Is that actually worth $1 million? It’s a good question, especially since the city recently invested millions into making other Harrisburg streets safer for pedestrians, seemingly without affecting the rising traffic accident rate.
But science supports the idea that synchronizing traffic lights to the size of an intersection can significantly reduce confusion and hesitation, which leads to collisions. For wide or busy intersections, ensuring that the traffic lights are appropriately timed according to how long it takes to actually clear the intersection is critical for pedestrian and motorist safety.
As for whether it’s worth $1 million dollars, consider this: the average injury from a car accident can cost upwards of $22,000. For debilitating or fatal injuries, the costs start as high as $1.7 million. If the traffic light retiming project prevents even one serious injury or a few dozen injuries total, it will have completely paid for itself. Not to mention, it will have spared many people the stress and heartache of suffering a traumatic accident.
But, of course, the proof is in the results. Will the retimed traffic lights, courtesy of USDOT, manage to finally lower Harrisburg’s crash average? Time will tell us soon enough.