Safer streets may soon be on the horizon for St. Louis city.
A proposal to spend nearly $65 million of pandemic-aid relief money on street and sidewalk improvements passed the Board of Aldermen with 25 of the 28 aldermen voting in favor of the measure today. The bill comes after a particularly fatal year for pedestrians and cyclists, at least 11 pedestrians and two bicyclists died in St. Louis city due to traffic violence by the fall of last year.
Among several appropriations, the bill proposes using ARPA dollars for traffic-calming measures and study-based roadway improvements, arterial street paving, sidewalk improvements and safety improvements at the city’s top 10 crash locations.
Board Bill 120 now heads to the mayor's desk for final approval. Jones is almost sure to sign. In an October op-ed, the mayor proposed investing $40 million in ARPA funding to improve streets.
Ward 3 Alderman Brandon Bosley introduced the Board Bill 120 in November. The measure soon earned the support of community groups: BWorks, an educational nonprofit for youth bicyclists; Trailnet; and the Community Mobility Center, all supported the bill, even if it wasn't a perfect one.
In a letter to Jones and Bosley last fall, BWorks staff requested the bill include funding for education programs and traffic enforcement. Members of the Community Mobility Committee echoed BWorks’ request in a January letter to Jones, Bosley and the Housing, Urban Development and Zoning Committee.
The bill allocates nothing to drivers’ education. Nor does it specify which areas of the city would benefit from the $8 million allocated for arterial street paving and $6 million for sidewalk pavements. Even so, the Community Mobility Committee wanted the bill to pass, co-chair Liz Kramer says.
“This is like a jumpstart,” Kramer says. “It’s a first step towards a lot more work that has to happen to put St. Louis on a path towards having a transportation network that’s anywhere close to our peer cities.”
The bill also sets in motion a city-wide mobility and transportation plan to address streets needs at a broader scope. Currently, aldermen address infrastructure needs with a ward-by-ward approach. St. Louis needs a more comprehensive and holistic approach to assessing infrastructure needs, Jones argued in her op-ed.
In all, Board Bill 120 appropriates $74 million, and not all for streets.
A $15 million allocation would help build a Public Safety Answering Point — a consolidated center for police, fire and EMS dispatch. For the 29 percent of St. Louis households without high-speed internet subscriptions, $5 million will go toward a “digital equity fund” to close technology divides, according to mayoral spokesman Nick Desideri. The money would be used as a local match for federal and state funding.
In addition, Hyde and Marquette Parks would each receive $200,000 for unspecified “improvements.”
For Kramer, she’s just happy to see the city move to use ARPA money for street safety before time runs out. As a walker and bicyclist, she says she fears for her life every single day. Still, she’s optimistic about St. Louis’ potential.
“I think we can be a really great place for biking and walking,” Kramer says. “But it's going to take a long time to change the way that our city looks and the kind of culture and behavior of people who are driving, biking and walking.”
This story has been updated with comment from the mayor's office.
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