In 2022, 7,522 people were struck and killed while walking on US roadways, a shocking 75 percent increase in such deaths since 2010. Meanwhile, more than 65,000 pedestrians were injured in that same year, marking an 11 percent increase from the previous year. Traffic violence does not impact all communities and individuals equally. Smart Growth America’s 2024 Dangerous by Design found that lower income folks, non-white people, and older adults are disproportionately impacted by unsafe streets.
Today we bring you a Member City Spotlight featuring a Salem, MA’s Traffic Calming Priority Tool. Read below to hear Mayors Institute on Pedestrian Safety alum, Mayor Dominick Pangallo, share how the tool has helped the City improve decision making, build trust with communities, and bring safety projects to the neighborhoods that need them the most.
Can you please describe the Traffic Calming Priority Tool and how it operates?
Salem is committed to Vision Zero and providing safe streets for all community members. A critical part of that work is ensuring our resources for investing in roadway safety projects are used in as equitable and fact-based a manner as possible. The Traffic Calming Priority Tool pulls together data related to every City roadway’s land uses, demographics of residents, crash history, and traffic speeds and volumes. Each street segment is then assigned a weighted score that helps us prioritize where traffic calming projects should take place, to best protect our most vulnerable populations and address our most serious safety issues.
As Mayor, what have been the main barriers to getting the tool started/accomplished?
There have been a few barriers to getting this tool implemented to its full potential. As a system reliant on data to make prioritizations it needs consistent information, but in some instances – for example with traffic speed and volume – we are still compiling citywide data to make the system applicable for all Salem roadways. The second challenge is telling [stakeholders] that the anecdotal impression they have that a road feels like it needs traffic calming measures is not actually the case when we look at the metrics, and there are other roads objectively less safe.
How have you (or are attempting to) overcome these barriers?
We have a partnership between Salem’s Transportation and Police Departments and a consultant to build our datasets out more robustly across the City, especially through our currently-underway Safe Streets for All Action Plan. We also incorporate information from traffic studies done for development projects. On the second barrier, it depends on trust. Being able to show a prioritization of streets helps put specific requests into context. We also identify if there are conditions causing the roadway to feel unsafe or move traffic dangerously and what kind of low-lift strategies can be put into place – for example, signage, improved lighting, etc.
What key successes or breakthroughs would you like to share?
One throughline of the use of the data tool is that very often the most dangerous roadways had no one advocating for them. The most dangerous streets were in neighborhoods with high percentages of renters and transient residents, as well as more economically disadvantaged areas. As with many municipal services, investments often flow to the neighborhoods that know how to work the levers of City government – but those are not always the neighborhoods where the need is greatest. So, the Traffic Calming Priority Tool has been a key part of Salem’s equity work, as well as our road safety work.
What learning lessons would you offer to other mayors on successful and effective leadership around pedestrian safety?
Regarding the use of data tools, like the Traffic Calming Priority Tool, one key takeaway is transparency and communication. We didn’t just build the tool for internal use; we chose to make it publicly available, so everyone in Salem is empowered to better understand how their neighborhood and their own street fits into the larger picture of citywide roadway safety. That level of transparency helps build trust in the City’s actions when we do make decisions about which projects come next, and it has the added benefit of making our community members more aware of pedestrian safety efforts in general.
To learn more about Salem, MA’s Traffic Calming Priority Tool, please visit their website here.