Village of East Palestine outlines safer streets action plan
The Village of East Palestine has unveiled and drafted a plan to make streets and roadways safer within the village.
According to a post on the Village of East Palestine Facebook page, the draft of the Safer Streets for All Action Plan was completed on March 16, 2026.
Safer Streets for All (SS4A) is a federal grant program, according to the post, which provides funding to support "local, regional and Tribal initiatives" that look to prevent deaths and serious injuries on roadways.
The funding is administered by the U.S. Department of Transportation (USDOT).
The post outlines several points discussed in the plan, including:
- Funding for the creation of a comprehensive safety action plan that looks at local crash data to identify high-risk areas, engage the community and outline safety improvement ideas
- Support the planning, demonstration and implementation of safety projects, like better sidewalks, speed management, improved lighting and more
- Emphasis on equity and ensuring underserved communities and areas with higher risks
Looking into the plan, the purpose of the action plan is to conduct a safety analysis and collect policy recommendations for the next steps that East Palestine can use to improve safety.
"After this Action Plan is developed and approved, East Palestine will then be eligible to apply for Safe Streets for All Implementation Grants or other Safety Improvement sources to achieve the recommendations listed in this Action Plan," as stated in the plan.
In the comments of the post, the village further explains that the money received from the SS4A grant was to create the action plan, which in turn would allow officials to use that documentation to apply for further government funding.
Data is shared in the drafted action plan, including data on crashes in East Palestine.
Between 2015 and 2024, a total of 457 crashes occurred, with seven of those resulting in injuries and one resulting in a death. This is according to the Ohio Department of Transportation (ODOT) Transportation Information Mapping System (TIMS).
The full breakdown of crashes by year, crashes and fatal and serious injury (FSI) crashes can be viewed in Figure 15.
In the plan, there is a section dedicated to community and stakeholder engagement.
Section 2.3 in the plan outlines that although crash data is valuable in planning, public opinion is also valuable for areas of concern, near-misses and potential issues.
As a result, the Village of East Palestine had created an informational website for the Safety Action Plan and conducted a survey, which included 154 responses to both the online survey and in-person events.
The top results of the survey outline that scooter and e-bike behavior and choices were a point of concern, followed by bike behavior and choices and driver behavior and choices.
Other factors that respondents indicated were impactful included:
- No pedestrian sidewalks or gaps in existing sidewalks
- No bike lanes, or not enough bike lanes to complete a trip
- Roadway surface conditions
The full graphic can be viewed below in Figure 4.
Specific areas were shared by respondents, that includes the Main Street, Brookdale Avenue and Park Avenue intersection, the Main Street Cooridor and the intersection at Taggart Street, Rebecca Street and Liberty Street.
A more thorough breakdown of the crash data can be found in Section 3 of the action plan.
Also included in the safety action plan is information about walking and biking networks in the Village.
Multiple maps are shared in the plan that indicate "a major gap in the East Palestine Walking Trail... on W Main Street between Spaite Drive and Brookdale Avenue, where no designated pedestrian or bicyclist facilities are present. Other key roads such as Brookdale Avenue, Bacon Avenue and Pleasant Drive, also have limited or no existing [Vulnerable Road User] infrastructure."
The full action plan document can be found here.
