Welcome everyone to our webinar on Safe Streets and Roads for All, a new federal program under the bipartisan infrastructure law. We appreciate your attendance as we discuss critical resources and technical assistance to help communities address the epidemic of roadway fatalities and implement a safe systems approach.
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Please note that this webinar is being recorded for sharing purposes and for those unable to join us today. For optimal viewing, set your screen to Speaker view using the icon at the top right of the Zoom window.
Our speakers today include Cheryl Walker, Associate Administrator for Safety at the Federal Highway Administration, who will present the basics of the Safe Streets and Roads for All program. Next, Tamika Mandeville, Director of the Department of Transportation in San Antonio, Texas, will discuss their experience securing funds and implementing the program. Jatish Patel will then address the importance of data-driven, community-informed planning for systemic change. Lastly, we will discuss organizational strategies for long-term success.
There will be a Q&A session at the end, so please use the Q&A feature to ask questions. We're grateful to have the Associate Administrator here, so take advantage of this opportunity to learn from her.Now, let's welcome Cheryl Walker, Associate Administrator for Safety at the Federal Highway Administration. In her role, Cheryl provides executive leadership to reduce and eliminate fatalities and serious injuries on our nation's public roads. With a background inlaw and experience in highways, streets, safety, motor carriers, and the energy sectors, Cheryl brings a wealth of knowledge and perspective to her role.
Cheryl, the floor is yours to present the Safe Streets and Roads for All program and help us understand the federal government's unprecedented investment in addressing roadway fatalities in our country.

Karina, thank you so much for the introduction. I'm delighted to be here. Welcome to this webinar, where I'll give an overview of the Safe Streets for All (SS4A) grant programs, as we call them, and help answer some questions towards the end of the program.
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I'll briefly discuss the background of Safe Streets for All to provide an overview, followed by information on the awards that have been made, to give you an idea of what we were looking for, how we evaluated, and the success that was achieved. Lastly, I'll touch upon the upcoming FY23 grant NOFO, just to give you a sense of what's coming in the next few weeks. So, next slide, please.
Let's look at why we are all here, why there is such a significant investment being made to save lives, and why we all spend time doing everything we can to save lives. Roadway fatalities and the fatality rate declined consistently for about 30 years, but in the 2010s, it stalled and has since been rising, especially during the pandemic and in the past couple of years. More than 370,000 people died between 2011 and 2020 in all types of transportation incidents. Out of that, 350,000 died on our roads, which accounts for 94-95% of all transportation fatalities in the US. This has made it a significant focus for all of us, as well as for the Secretary of Transportation. There is a strong focus across the department on reducing these numbers. Next slide, please.
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Secretary of Transportation Pete Buttigieg regularly discusses safety. He refers to it as an urgent, unacceptable, and importantly, preventable crisis. We have support from the very top of the department, which is dedicated to taking action. Next slide, please.
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Could you go back one slide? I think there may be one out of order. Okay, let me just talk about the National Roadway Safety Strategy. I encourage you to look at this document if you haven't already. It was issued in January 2022 and outlines USDOT's comprehensive approach to saving lives. The Secretary of Transportation has adopted it and put his name on the document. It involves all the different surface transportation modes working closely together within the department.
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There are four key aspects of the National Roadway Safety Strategy (NRSS). First, it sets a vision and goal of zero across the USDOT. Second, it adopts the safe system approach, which I will touch upon momentarily. Third, it identifies specific priority actions that we within the department will take, along with different modes such as the Federal Highway Administration, Federal Transit, and Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration. We have committed to these actions and are being transparent about our progress. Fourth, it announces a call to action. In addition to the specific actions taken by USDOT, we're inviting everyone across various sectors involved in transportation nationwide to commit to actions that will save lives. This includes private industry, government, and local and state authorities.I encourage you to visit the National Roadway Safety Strategy website. We're looking for people to join as allies in action—different groups that commit to specific actions to save lives. As we all know, none of us can do this alone. We need to work together.

Next slide, please. My apologies, let's keep this slide. It's the next one in my notes, and it shows the safe system approach. I want to briefly discuss this. As part of the National Roadway Safety Strategy (NRSS), USDOT has adopted the safe system approach. I encourage you to take a more in-depth look at this if you haven't already. It serves as an umbrella over everything we do in USDOT concerning saving lives. As you can see, the principles are listed on the right. In summary, humans make mistakes, and while we try to prevent them through education and other means, they still happen. Thus, we need to create a redundant system to protect everyone from deaths and serious injuries when something goes wrong. The redundancy lies in safer people, safer vehicles, safer speeds, safer roads, and post-crash care, as shown on the left. For example, if one element fails, like safer speeds, we hope that elements such as safer roads come into play. We aim to incorporate proven safety countermeasures into road design to prevent the loss of life in accidents, such as roadside hardware like guardrails, rumble strips, and well-constructed sidewalks to protect pedestrians. Redundancy in our system is critical.
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Next slide, please. We're here to discuss the Safe Streets and Roads for All program, a key initiative supporting the National Roadway Safety Strategy to achieve zero fatalities. This program offers an unprecedented level of funding to support local initiatives aimed at preventing deaths and serious injuries on our roads and streets, commonly referred to as Vision Zero or Towards Zero Deaths initiatives. Each year, between fiscal years 2022 and 2026, $1 billion in annual funding is provided for local projects. The NOFO for the first year, FY22, was published in May 2022, with the application deadline on September 15th. On February 1st, Secretary Buttigieg announced the FY22 awards. Some notable features of the SS4A program include a significantly higher number of awards each year compared to other USDOT discretionary grant programs. Importantly, states are not eligible applicants for this program. Eligible recipients include Metropolitan Planning Organizations (MPOs), cities, towns, counties, transit authorities, federally recognized tribal governments, and any groups of these eligible entities working together.
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Next slide, please. So, under the SS4A program, there are two specific types of grants: the Action Plan Grant and the Implementation Grant. It's important to note that the detailed descriptions I'm providing here are from FY22, and while the FY23 NOFO hasn't been released yet, the statutory requirements for these two grant types will likely remain similar. However, please be aware that wording and minor details may change in the FY23 NOFO, so it's crucial to review the specifics when it's released.The Action Plan Grant is intended for creating a comprehensive safety action plan, which serves as the foundation for the Safe Streets for All grant program. The goal is for each applicant to develop a holistic, well-defined strategy to prevent fatalities and serious injuries in their locality, region, or tribal lands. Action Plan grants can support localities that don't currently have an eligible action plan, as well as communities seeking supplemental planning activities such as expanded data collection, feasibility studies using quick-build strategies, and funding for complementary planning efforts.To qualify for the second grant type, the Implementation Grant, you must have an existing action plan. However, it doesn't need to be funded under the first grant type. If your community already has a plan in place that meets the necessary requirements, you can apply for the Implementation Grant. These grants provide funding for communities to implement strategies and projects that significantly reduce or eliminate fatalities and serious injuries. The projects or strategies funded must be identified in an existing action plan.
Regarding funding, $1 billion is allocated annually, with at least 40% ($400 million) designated for Action Plan grants.
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Next slide, please. The evaluation criteria used in FY22, which will likely be quite similar in FY23, determined project selection. For Action Plan grants, the application process was kept simple and accessible, with a 300-word narrative, minimum mandatory federal forms, and a small number of data requests. There was no requirement for letters of support or cost-benefit analyses. For Implementation grants, there were four selection criteria: safety impact, equity, engagement and collaboration, and effective practices and strategies, with climate, sustainability, and economic competitiveness as additional factors. Safety impact was the most crucial criterion. Also considered were project readiness and funds for underserved communities, to ensure that awarded projects were prepared for implementation.

Next slide, please. This slide provides a quick overview of the FY22 awards. As you can see on the map, awards were granted across the US. Out of the 510 communities selected for FY22 grants, 473 received Action Plan grants, and 37 received Implementation grants. Over $800 million was awarded in total to improve roadway safety, benefiting more than half of the nation's population.
Next slide, please. So, what made for a successful application? For Action Plan grants in the first round, every complete and eligible application received an award. Of the $400 million available, only $200 million was distributed, simply because not enough applications were submitted. This means that for FY23, close to $600 million will be available for Action Plan grants. We encourage communities to take advantage of this opportunity.
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For Implementation Grant awards, successful applications were highly rated across all selection criteria and aligned well with the program's goals. They employed effective, lower-cost, data-driven interventions addressing serious injuries and fatalities across wide geographic networks. It's crucial to address each criterion listed in the NOFO clearly and concisely in your application.
Next slide, please. Here are three examples of successful applications. Hillsborough County, Florida, received a $19.7 million Implementation Grant for Federal Highways-proven safety countermeasures and strategies effective in reducing fatalities and serious injuries. Projects included sidewalk installations, leading pedestrian intervals, and crosswalk improvements.
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Next slide, please. Fayette County, Iowa, received a $10.4 million Implementation Grant for shoulder widening, rumble strips, and low-cost treatments across 50 miles of roadway, consistent with recommendations from their Local Road Safety Plan. The proposed improvements targeted 21% of the county's paved road mileage, accounting for 41% of total crashes and 31% of fatal and serious injury crashes.
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Next slide, please. Frederick County, Maryland, received an Action Plan Grant to build upon their existing Toward Zero Deaths plan, integrating traffic safety considerations into design development standards and identifying high-risk rural road segments.While every eligible Action Plan application received funding, only about 18% of Implementation Grant applications were awarded due to higher costs and limited funds. To increase your chances of success, thoroughly address all elements and considerations outlined in the NOFO.That concludes my presentation. We'll be taking questions at the end. Karina, I'm turning it back over to you.

Thank you, Cheryl, for the fantastic presentation. It's not easy to follow up on that, but now I would like to pass the floor to Tomika Monterville. Tomika is one of the fortunate implementation grant recipients, which was made possible due to the action plan already in place, enabling immediate action for implementation.

Tomika Monterville is the inaugural director of San Antonio's Department of Transportation, a department created just two years ago. In this role, Tomika works with engineers, planners, and other stakeholders, as well as San Antonio's public transit agency, to implement both small-scale targeted safety countermeasures, such as improved sidewalks and bicycle infrastructure, and larger-scale safety and operational improvements to achieve San Antonio's Vision Zero goal of eliminating roadway deaths and fatalities.
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Tomika, the floor is yours.

Thank you, Karina. I am truly excited to be here with all of you today. One crucial point I'd like to highlight is that the city's project was already underway before I arrived. I was fortunate enough to inherit a Vision Zero action plan developed several years ago, with the support of Mayor Nirenberg, former Mayor Ivy Taylor, and the council, who made Vision Zero a priority.

Upon establishing our department, we prioritized the High Injury Network based on annual severe injury reports for bicyclists and pedestrians over multiple years. Jatish emphasized the importance of data in applications, which helps to connect with the criteria and tell a compelling story. Among our ten High Injury Network corridors, the Zarzamora corridor has a significant underserved population, which led us to identify it for our $5.5 million application. The funds were requested to implement eight mid-block crossings with pedestrian refuges, a proven safety countermeasure from the FHWA, and to launch a safety campaign that includes education.

We received $4.4 million, and part of our success involved meeting criteria and connecting the dots within our jurisdiction regarding other programs that leverage sustainability. Our sustainability department has an impressive climate action plan completed several years ago. We assessed the impacts of eight mid-block crossings with pedestrian refuge lighting, pedestrian hybrid beacons, and vegetation along the nearly 10-mile corridor, which will create approximately 1/8 of an acre of green space. In San Antonio, we face an urban heat island issue, and creating green spaces and natural design elements can help alleviate the problem.

A few years ago, the city and our larger stakeholder partners established an executive roundtable led by our city manager, Eric Walsh. This roundtable convenes all of our municipalities, the MPO, VIA Metropolitan Transit, and our energy company to discuss federal discretionary grant programs monthly, ensuring we don't compete against each other. When applying for city streets grants, we encourage Bexar County to apply for action plan grants, with the eventual goal of coordinating implementation projects that benefit both the city and county.

The City of San Antonio also received an action plan grant. Our next steps involve working with our Federal Highway partner in the Texas division, initiating conversations with our local team, and planning procurement, finance, and public works departments for grant implementation. Our team is currently developing draft solicitations for construction and the safety and education campaign.

As a new department, we held one-on-one meetings with regional and local offices of consultant and engineering firms to outline our vision, priorities, and the role of Vision Zero in our plans. Many firms are aware of our need for more transportation planners. The firm RPS helped us attend Safe Streets Grant webinars and meetings, which was instrumental in outlining our plan. We also worked with BGE, a firm that assisted us with our 2021 RAISE grant application. We knew that data, criteria alignment, storytelling, and implementation planning were key aspects of our successful application.

Our seven-member team included a writer, a QA/QC person, an assistant to the director, and a graphic communications director. We believe these roles were instrumental in our success. We plan to apply for funding every year, Associate Administrator Cheryl, so please continue supporting us. We have nine more corridors to address, and we truly appreciate your assistance. Thank you so much.

Thank you, Tomika. I'm sure there will be a lot of discussion about the next steps and how to deliver the project efficiently now that you've secured the funding. Next, we'll hear from Jatish Patel, founder and CEO of Flow Labs. Jatish has over a decade of experience in advancing cutting-edge transportation technologies both globally and nationally. In the past, he has been not only a developer but also an investor in such technologies, and can truly emphasize the importance of data-informed decisions for sound investments. Jatish, the floor is yours.

Thank you very much, Karina, for the introduction. And I also want to express my gratitude to Tomika. As Tomika mentioned, if you want to be successful in acquiring grant money and implementing an action plan, you need to have your house in order, be able to connect the dots, and tell your story. In this section, I'm going to discuss how you can achieve that. My name is Jatish Patel, and I am the CEO of Flow Labs. We use technology to help agencies solve their most significant safety challenges. The SS4A encourages a new way of thinking about safety. Firstly, it emphasizes all transportation participants, including not just vehicles but also pedestrians, bicyclists, and other vulnerable road users. Secondly, it focuses on safer systems.

Even though the vast majority of crashes are a direct result of risky driver behaviors, you cannot solely rely on education to reduce them. The SS4A also examines how the design and operation of the system might encourage drivers to take risks. Now we can redesign the system to prevent bad actors from harming themselves and others. However, some aspects of safety programs will always remain the same. The action plan, implementation plan, and funding format all mirror the typical lifecycle of a safety project.

The action plan covers identifying what is happening, why it's happening, and what to do about it, while the implementation plan focuses on executing the plan, evaluating its effectiveness, and repeating successful strategies in future funding programs. At the heart of these two processes are data and information, which are often difficult for agencies to obtain.

Many agencies that have already won action plans don't know where to start with their action plans. At Flow Labs, we recommend agencies begin by understanding what is happening across their systems from a safety perspective and leverage tools and technologies to do so. We provide technologies and tools that help cities use the data they already have in their organizations from crashes, traffic management systems, work zones, and connected vehicle data at scale. This information gives agencies a clearer picture of what is happening on any given roadway at any given time from a safety, mobility, and even sustainability perspective.

As an agency, being always ready is crucial. You can quickly identify, for example, where your most significant speeding issues are, where your most significant pedestrian safety risks lie, and where red-light running is highest. All this can be done without having to deploy expensive hardware-based systems. The action plan funding program is excellent because the funding can be used to procure technology services that can create an effective action plan and can also be used for smaller-scale pilots.

The approach we take is rapidly deployable and affordable. The average action plan funding was just under $430,000, and these types of technologies cost only a fraction of that amount. When it comes to action plans, use technology to support your engineering teams and consultant partners with the tools they need to execute quickly and effectively.

Step one is always about finding the right safety projects. By accessing data across your region, you can quickly identify all of your problem areas and create a prioritized list. As part of an action plan, it's essential to identify the most significant safety problems and therefore the most significant potential for impact if you want to succeed in a subsequent implementation grant.

Step two is about finding the right fix. Using the same data, agencies can diagnose issues, understand the root cause of problems, and identify the right solution supported by real-world data. This way, you can maximize your chance of success in a subsequent implementation grant application.

Regarding implementation grants, it's essential for agencies to get the most value for their money. As Cheryl mentioned, one key criterion is effectiveness, but affordability and scalability are also important. Intersections are some of the most significant problem areas for transportation agencies, responsible for over 50%of total fatality and injury crashes. This is where road users converge: pedestrians, bicyclists, and drivers. At Flow Labs, intersection safety is a key area of focus, and our tools are designed to help fix safety issues at intersections. Our tools have also been used to optimize corridors for both safety and mobility.

Traditional safety projects often revolve around physical infrastructure, but as soon as you start construction, the cost of implementation can skyrocket. At Flow Labs, we recommend that agencies allocate a portion of their funding to create a component for digital solutions as part of their implementation plans.

The final piece of the puzzle is determining whether your project works and evaluating its safety impact. Often, project evaluation can be a significant expense, requiring extensive labor and fieldwork over several months. However, by using tools like those provided by Flow Labs, you can quickly and accurately measure a project's safety impact and assess the trade-offs made for mobility, operations, and sustainability. You can then use this data to secure funding for your next projects.

Funding agencies are more likely to support projects with high impact rather than high risk. If you can demonstrate the impact of your last project, you will have a better chance of winning funding for subsequent projects. As Tomika mentioned, it's essential to consider future grants as well. We encourage agencies to think beyond the current program and build the infrastructure that allows them to find issues, fix them, and fund projects quickly and repeatedly.

While SS4A is a major program with substantial runway, it will eventually end, and other safety programs will follow. Therefore, think beyond the current project and ensure you are prepared for the next funding round. At Flow Labs, we believe that data-driven systems are safer systems, so make sure you have the necessary infrastructure in place.

I'd like to leave you with one final thought: if you buy a fish, you'll feed yourself for a day, but if you work with Flow Labs, you can get a fishing boat instead. Now, I'll pass the floor to Karina Ricks, a partner at CDFI. Karina has decades of experience in the transportation industry, working at every level, from federal agencies such as FTA, to cities like Pittsburgh, and now extending her expertise to cities across the United States as part of her role at CDFI. Karina, I'll hand it over to you.

I would like to quickly touch on a few points made here. The US Department of Transportation does not intend for the Safe Streets and Roads for All program to be a one-and-done investment. It is not about a list of projects that will be selected and implemented one at a time. Instead, it is about a systemic, deeply embedded culture shift to save lives on our roadways and change the way our program is developed. They are looking for plans that are data-driven and community-informed.

They seek alignment between transportation organizations and vital partners, from project selection to design, construction, operations, and maintenance. Great bike lanes that are not swept and kept clean of debris are not safe facilities. A holistic approach must be taken. The goal is to catalyze a transformational shift towards a deeply embedded safety culture. This is what the criteria of equity, engagement, collaboration, and safe systems are all about.

This unique program recognizes that planning money is precious, and we don't often see a lot of it coming from federal investments. The opportunity to develop these action plans, which are comparatively low-cost but extremely high-impact, should not be missed. It is a chance to take an introspective look at an organization and develop holistic, systemic strategies that will outlast this administration, program, and initiative. These strategies will pay dividends for years, decades, and generations to come.

Organizations must understand that safety cannot be siloed. Every unit involved in budgeting, programming, procurement, planning, engineering, operations, maintenance, public space, permitting, inspections, and enforcement must be aligned. There must be a community, both internal and external to the government, that is committed to this vision.

As Jatish mentioned, centering safety efforts within an evidence-based framework is crucial. Partner with institutional research organizations so every decision can be backed up by data and evaluated for its intended effect. Consider performance-based budgeting and invest in projects that will achieve community outcomes as articulated in strategic and vision plans. Break through policy inertia by reviewing processes and conventions that have not yet resulted in desired outcomes.

Engagement is critical. Involve public elected officials so they can provide necessary support and prevent watering down safety improvements. Bring community stakeholders into the process to create space for bold, assertive changes. We cannot achieve zero fatalities through minor tweaks; people's lives are on the line, and it is important to develop comprehensive plans.

As Cheryl mentioned, action plans allow for demonstrations and early wins. Stakeholders often need to see improvements before they can believe in the potential of the change. Use planning grants to encourage pilots, demonstrations, and quick-build physical improvements. Tackle contracting and procurement obstacles, consider alternative procurement methods, and involve transit agencies, as they can be great partners in implementing safety improvements.

Lastly, think about ways to rapidly scale up, as federal dollars will not fund all improvements throughout a city. Use the action plan to build long-term implementation strategies. This is an exciting opportunity, and we are pleased to have Cheryl and Tomika joining Jatish and myself. I will now turn it over to Jatish to moderate the questions.

Thanks a lot Karina. And thanks a lot to all of our speakers here today. super informative. We're going to be going into the q&a session now. We've just got a couple questions already. But everyone who's attending this, Cheryl here has brought a number of members from her team and Federal Highways Administration, this is a rare opportunity to ask as much as you can about about the program and get all of the all of the key details that you need. So please use this please feel free to add your questions into the q&a. We're going to start off with the first question from from Alicia. Let Kim says transit agencies are eligible recipients, what types of projects do you envisage transit agencies applying for? And examples from FAA FY 20 twos awardees? Going to pass that on to Dana?

Sure. Thanks so much.

Great question.

I will say that there are transit authorities that did receive grant funds to improve safety at transit stops. There are also some city and counties that also applied for grant funds and were awarded through this program. There is a safe streets and roads for all website. And applicants really have an advantage to this year, because you're able to see all the types of grants and the interventions that were funded in year one. And so I encourage all of you to use that website, and scan those applications that were successfully awarded. So you can help build your brand, based upon the projects that were successful. When you think of transit. Of course, we know that there's been a big safety problem with vulnerable road users trying to get to transit stops. And so you'll see some improvements to improve safety around transit areas in your one grants. I also would encourage that when you think about what type of countermeasures that's why it's so important to first start at an action plan phase, developing an action plan really takes that data driven, deep dive if you will, into where the problems are, and then also helps to identify the countermeasures and strategies needed to address the problem. And so starting at the Action Plan phase, I would encourage those that don't have one first to do that. It will help you set set yourself up for success not only in the subsequent years of the grant funds, but also once this program is no longer available, you kind of have set that safety culture within the organization.

And Dana, I'm gonna add one thing as far as transit goes and please step in if I don't quite have this right. But as far as transit goes, some transit agencies are eligible some are not because states are not eligible recipients. It cannot be a transit authority operated directly by the state to T. Okay, just want to make sure it's not every single one but but many transit authorities are.

We have another question for two mica has the city of San Antonio considered using this funding for Roundup? about I'm not sure whether you already answered that, or can you? Yes, directly?

I didn't answer it. But yes, yes, yes. Well, we know and this is also what we put in our application, we put the proven safety countermeasures that FH WA has provided this is this is really critical to the applicants, when you direct yourself to that data, that's going to help you identify what is the best proven safety countermeasure based on the corridor based on the location based on the data related to the types of injuries, the severity of the injuries and the number of fatalities. So we want to be data driven. And as we look at our high Injury Network corridors, we're going to apply annually for funds. And we're going to let the area the location determine what is the best proven safety countermeasure to really affect getting to zero. So let your area dictate, don't say, oh, I want to put in a roundabout because we know is 80% proven safety and prevention of crashes. But make sure the actual countermeasure is effective for the location. And that is how your action plan is going to help you got the type of project that you implement in your community. So let the data and let the community and their feedback and what you know about that area guide the decision making because there's also that education component, which is what we included in our application, not just doing the actual engineering and putting that infrastructure, but also educating people, the drivers, the pedestrians, you know, when we're walking down the street like this crossing the street, but it takes as the administrator, you know, share, we have to look at the holistic, safe system approach. So with safe people, safe automobiles, safe speeds, safe roads, and post crash care. So we let all of those elements guide us in identifying our corridor, and that was in our application.

Awesome. We've got another question regarding implementation grant applications from the 2022 round. What is a common mistake that was made on implementation applications? And I kind of brought it up a little bit, you mentioned that the success rate for implementation grant applications was around 18%. If I'm not mistaken, what were the common pitfalls that essentially disqualified certain grant applications early? And number two, you know, if if some of these answers some of these strong grant applications that were unsuccessful, this round, they were to reapply? How could they make their application stronger.

So this Hi, I'm Jason Brown, I'm the safe streets and roads for all team leader, I work closely with Cheryl and Dana in the Office of Safety or the Federal Highway Administration. So my team and others across the agency were involved as evaluators, and we did a an intake process on the grant applications as well. I would say, one sort of just basic thing, which we worked hard to correct is that some applications were just missing fields of information, certain documents. So we did extensive work to try to help them get complete applications. And that took some time and some, some back and forth. I'd say the other thing is that, you know, look at the selection criteria, and very closely read what's in the NOFO. As Cheryl mentioned, safety impact is far and away the most important one, if you don't have both a good characterization of what the safety problem is that you're trying to solve, and what your solutions are, in terms of, you know, what you're going to put in place and in, you know, changing the roadway right away and including safety improvements, it's really going to be hard for your application to rise to the top. The other selection criteria were also important, but safety impact is really front and center. And if you don't excel in that you are not going to be successful in the end, most likely.

Excellent, we've got a few minutes left on the webinar. And I'll just hand it over to Cheryl, shortly to wrap us up. But thank you all to all of our panelists and all of our attendees, especially panelists provided a huge amount of insight and information through real world experience that can help a lot of agencies in this round, as well as the next round of funding as well. The I met Cheryl for the first time a couple of weeks ago at the Asheboro briefing in Washington DC. As we started Pete Buttigieg was speaking there. I think what was very clear was how strong the vision and the direction for this administration is on transportation which has obviously led to the SS for a program. So thank you for all of your work and we look forward to see see seeing more of, I guess more of the same over the course of the next next few years. I'll hand it over to Cheryl to wrap us up for some final thoughts.

Wonderful, thank you. It was great to meet you in person Jatish. And Karina, I have have worked together and years before to and to make and I have just met through this process over the last couple of days. So love making the new connections, there are so many of us throughout the US who are passionate about saving lives. I know we are thrilled to have this new program, it can really, really make a difference. And I'm excited that there's such good participation. And there are people interested in applying for the next rounds, I realized that I did not mention the when the FY 23 novo is coming out, it's the coming weeks. I mean, it's hard to pinpoint a day it is it is being worked on. It's it's should be coming out, I'll see you soon in the in the coming weeks. So please keep an eye out for that. You know, the goal of the program, of course, it's to reduce fatalities and serious injuries. Funding is going to non traditional recipients, which means it's not going straight to do t. So we're all learning new things along the way, about how to get the word out about how to get the best applications. And that's part of what this webinar is addressing. I'll say we part of the purpose, of course, is to give direct funding to make some of the improvements. I mean, some are implementation plan, a very foundational piece is to get that action plan across the board across the US have all the different locals, the MPOs, the counties that tribal governments really digging in and looking at what they have, where the safety issues are, what are the best ways to address it, what projects are needed that collaboration in the community and getting leadership in the community involved to just really have everybody speaking with one voice about the importance of saving lives and getting excited about it. We also really want this to be a force multiplier. I mean, you know, that's part of why we are we want to share the information that's out there. And we want to we're posting you know, all of the successful recipients are hoping that potential recipients of potential applicants, we'll take a look at that. But even beyond that, now as the process goes on, and there are in these projects are implemented. And when we when we see information on the projects and what was successful, we all learn from one another. I mean, there is nothing like learning from another kind of a peer organization or locality has done something that worked. And that's what we're really looking for in the end is projects that are going to work that are going to save lives. And we can learn from each other. So we look forward to the next round and the applications that are coming to come in. I know we've highlighted the action plan, grant application process, please, please, we're looking for more this time around and there are please read the notebook carefully. I mean, we're we're going to learn each year we're not we're not looking to change the NOFA for the sake of changing it or changing it. There's a reason we're changing it because we learned something. And we can't we can't tee up anything until it's gone through the process. And it's just that's just the way it is. So please read the new NOFO carefully for all the different eligibility, please, please, please take a look at the criteria and address each one of them in your application. And we look forward to working working with all of you. So thank you for inviting us. And I'll turn it back for anybody wants to close it out.

Right. Thanks so much, Cheryl. Thank everyone. I hope that this was helpful information again, the recording will be available if anyone wants to rehear any of these gems of wisdom that were presented here. You can reach out to Tish so labs City Lab, city city pi we're here to help and please this is a once in a generation literally program please take advantage of it. USD oh two wants to work with you. Thanks. Thank you. Thanks, everyone.