Pittsburgh Mayor Corey O’Connor and Allegheny County Executive Sara Innamorato are leading an effort to improve pedestrian safety in some of the county’s most dangerous traffic stretches.
The new group — also involving PennDOT, Pittsburgh Regional Transit and the Southwestern Pennsylvania Commission — is conducting a study of the county’s “high-injury” traffic corridors and applying for grants to overhaul them on a case-by-case basis.
Members of the new partnership gathered Wednesday next to Kennywood Boulevard — the site of multiple pedestrian fatalities in recent years. A 13-year-old boy died after a vehicle struck him on the road last December, and a man died in 2021.
“We cannot accept these tragedies as inevitable,” Innamorato said. “Everyone should be able to get where they’re going safely, whether you’re driving, biking, walking, or taking transit, and that’s exactly what Vision Zero is about.”
Innamorato said the county contributed a combined $32,500 to the group’s traffic study, which will provide the Department of Public Works with data-driven analysis to focus on areas with the highest number of serious and fatal crashes.
Aside from Kennywood Boulevard, high-injury corridors in the study included Fifth Avenue in Oakland, South Aiken Avenue and Liberty Avenue in Bloomfield, Penn Avenue in Point Breeze and Butler Street in Lawrenceville.
Evan Schloss, the Southwestern Commission’s manager of transportation operations and safety, said that the partners are still completing their final report and suggestions for each roadway.
He expected a site like Kennywood Boulevard to receive additional sidewalks, streetlights at key intersections and leading pedestrian intervals, which give pedestrians several seconds to enter a crosswalk before turning vehicles see a green light.
“Once those suggestions have been identified, it’ll be up to us to competitively find resources to make sure we can implement those suggestions,” Schloss said.
The partners applied for $14.5 million in federal grants last month to fund safety improvements at three initial sites: Butler Street in Lawrenceville, McKees Rocks Road and Lorish Road in McKees Rocks and Home Street, Greensprings Avenue and Ravine Street in Munhall and West Mifflin.
The total combined project costs would be $18.2 million, and the partners expect to hear back regarding their application within the next several months, according to Lillian Gabreski, director of the Southwestern Pennsylvania Commission’s office of transportation.
They would have five years to complete the construction if the grants are approved, she said.
The partners don’t know for certain how they will pay for the rest of the proposed projects, which could be years from breaking ground in some cases. Going forward, they are operating as if they will receive the same amount of federal funding they received through the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, either through a continuing resolution or a new bill, Gabreski said.
O’Connor also committed to continue and expand Vision Zero, an international movement that his predecessor, Ed Gainey, adopted to eliminate local traffic deaths.
Gainey oversaw well over a dozen Vision Zero traffic projects during his time in office, which typically focused on installing speed bumps and higher-visibility crosswalks in Pittsburgh neighborhoods with high rates of speeding drivers.
O’Connor wants to spread the projects through Allegheny County.
“Safety doesn’t stop at municipal borders — it continues throughout this region,” he said. “Our number one priority is the safety of every visitor that comes through the city of Pittsburgh.”