ST. LOUIS–On the heels of one of the most deadly years for traffic in the history of the city of St. Louis and a weekend that saw five people killed in a pair of traffic accidents, Mayor Tishaura Jones on Wednesday signed a board bill that commits to spending at least $40 million in federal funds on traffic calming and street redesign measures.
While construction of those projects won’t start until sometime in 2024, city officials confirmed that they’re separately looking at bringing back red light traffic camera enforcement in the nearer term and are in the early stages of exploring a non-police unit to address traffic enforcement.
“Traffic violence tears families and communities apart and to those who say that they feel scared on our roads: I hear you,” Jones said. “Parents in our city, like myself, are asking ourselves, how can we teach our teenagers how to drive in a city where the rules of the road can feel more like suggestions. How can we protect people no matter how they choose to get around?”
The weekend accidents, which killed one person at Morgan Ford and Bates, and another which killed four at Forest Park and South Grand, serve as tragic reminders, Jones said, while adding that the city has to do more.
Board Bill 120 funds the design and implementation of traffic calming and road improvements for completed traffic studies in the city, funds traffic calming and ADA improvements for the Grand, Union, Goodfellow, Jefferson and Kingshighway corridors, and addresses safety improvements at the top 10 city crash locations.
“Not all of the target areas will receive funding,” Board of Public Service President Rich Bradley said, adding that work will be prioritized on available funding. “It took decades to build the infrastructure that we use every single day. This will not be work that we can complete overnight. Infrastructure work is very complicated. It takes time and a lot of thought.”
The city can now start the design work on the already-completed traffic studies, get that work done by the first quarter of 2024, with construction to follow.
Jones hopes the end result of that work will resemble what has unfolded on a corridor not far from the site of the bill signing on the 3100 block of North Grand.
A few blocks north on Natural Bridge, a corridor that was the scene of multiple high-speed fatalities in recent years has seen speeds reduced by 9 miles an hour, Jones said citing Missouri Department of Transportation data and noting that more data was needed to see established trends.
New enforcement steps
Mayor Jones said the St. Louis Metropolitan Police Department wrote more than 8,000 speeding tickets and 2,700 for signal violations, but said the city had to do more to hold reckless drivers accountable, which is why the city is looking to bring back red light cameras. They were abandoned after the Missouri Supreme Court cited constitutional and due process questions.
Jones said the city was working on a plan that would safeguard the privacy of the images, address due process, and where they would be placed.
Aldermanic Board President Megan Green said traffic education and enforcement would be a priority for the next session of the Board when new members are seated after the April elections.
“We know that some of these education and enforcement mechanisms can be implemented sooner. And this is the top priority of the Board of Aldermen and I’m committed to working with both the new board when it is sworn in in April and the Mayor’s office to find the funding for these programs,” Green said.
She also said the city was in the early stages of looking at if the city should staff a non-police traffic enforcement unit.
