Forward Pinellas has committed to improving the safety of our streets in many ways. In 2021, Forward Pinellas developed and adopted the Safe Streets Pinellas Resolution, committing the agency to prioritizing safety in all aspects of what we do. By late 2022, 21 of the 25 local governments in Pinellas County have also signed on to the Safe Streets Pinellas Resolution. Our staff continues to work to get all 25 local governments to sign the Safe Streets Pinellas Resolution, documenting our shared commitment to driving down fatalities in Pinellas.

One of the biggest responsibilities of Forward Pinellas is to prioritize transportation projects for funding. Coming out of the Safe Streets Pinellas Action Plan, Forward Pinellas revamped the way we consider how to evaluate proposed projects.  All transportation projects that are proposed or addition to our Multimodal Transportation Priority List, are evaluated on a point-based system. Of the total points available for a project to receive, a full 25% of the possible points are based on safety, the highest percentage of points from any rating category. This was done to address the scale of the safety challenges identified in Safe Streets Pinellas, to ensure that the projects we advance as an agency are taking the safety of all roadway users into consideration. All materials related to our project prioritization process can be found here: https://forwardpinellas.org/transportation-priority-lists/call-for-projects/#1624902597700-d8eabc85-21ea.

In addition, Forward Pinellas continues to work with our local government partners to advance projects that address the recommendations coming from the Safe Streets Pinellas Action Plan. In addition to moving safety projects forward through the prioritization process, Forward Pinellas staff coordinates with our local government partners to seek out, and apply for, grant funding to advance the Plan recommendations. In 2022, Forward Pinellas submitted a Safe Streets and Roads for All federal grant application in coordination with five of our local government partners. If received, these grant funds will be used to fulfill yet another recommendation coming out of Safe Streets Pinellas, which is to implement demonstration projects throughout the county to improve safety and highlight the success of these various projects throughout our communities. Forward Pinellas is also currently reconstituting a number of local and regional advisory/coordinating committees that focus on safety, to ensure that the recommendations of Safe Streets Pinellas come to fruition.