Municipal leaders looking to reduce traffic deaths and serious injuries should take a close look at the FY26 Safe Streets and Roads for All (SS4A) grant program. Administered by the U.S. Department of Transportation, SS4A is one of the strongest current funding opportunities for communities that want to address roadway safety in a meaningful, data-driven way.
The FY26 Notice of Funding Opportunity was released on March 27, 2026, and the program continues to focus on one clear goal, preventing deaths and serious injuries on roadways. That includes projects that improve safety for drivers, pedestrians, bicyclists, transit users, and first responders.
How much funding is available?
For FY26, USDOT is making up to $993.5 million available through SS4A. Of that total, approximately $687.8 million is set aside for Implementation Grants and about $305.7 million is available for Planning and Demonstration Grants.
When is the deadline?
Applications are due by May 26, 2026, at 5:00 p.m. EDT. For communities considering an Implementation Grant, technical questions and pre-application eligibility review requests must be submitted by April 24, 2026.
Who is eligible to apply?
Eligible applicants include:
· Cities, towns, villages, and counties
· Metropolitan Planning Organizations (MPOs)
· Federally recognized Tribal governments
· Multijurisdictional groups made up of eligible entities
What does SS4A fund?
SS4A is not a general transportation grant. It is not meant for beautification, routine paving, or broad equipment purchases. Successful applications must be tied to a documented roadway safety problem and a strategy for reducing fatalities and serious injuries.
The program offers two main grant tracks.
Planning and Demonstration Grants
Planning and Demonstration Grants are designed for communities that do not yet have a qualifying Action Plan or need to update an existing one. These grants can support:
· Development of a new comprehensive safety Action Plan
· Updates to an existing Action Plan
· Supplemental planning activities
· Demonstration projects that test safety strategies before a larger investment
This track is a strong fit for municipalities that know they have roadway safety issues but are not yet ready to pursue a construction-heavy or implementation-focused request.
Examples of eligible planning and demonstration activities may include studying pedestrian and bicyclist crash hotspots, analyzing high-injury corridors, piloting temporary curb extensions, adding quick-build crosswalk improvements, or testing traffic calming strategies before permanent construction.
Implementation Grants
Implementation Grants are intended for municipalities that already have an eligible Action Plan or equivalent plan in place and are ready to carry out projects identified in that plan.
Applicants pursuing implementation funding may also include supplemental planning or demonstration activities, but those elements must directly support the broader implementation effort.
Potential implementation projects can include:
· Intersection safety improvements at high-crash locations
· Lane reconfiguration on dangerous corridors
· Pedestrian refuge islands, enhanced crosswalks, flashing beacons, and sidewalk gap closure
· Bicycle safety improvements such as protected bike lanes
· Speed management projects, including traffic calming and corridor redesign
· Signal improvements tied to roadway safety
· Operational and behavioral safety initiatives connected to an eligible Action Plan
What is the match requirement?
SS4A requires a 20% local match, as the federal share may not exceed 80% of total project costs. That requirement is important to discuss early with prospective applicants, especially municipalities with limited local funding capacity.
How should municipalities think about this opportunity?
At its core, SS4A is a roadway safety grant for communities that want to reduce traffic deaths and serious injuries. That makes it a good fit for municipalities dealing with dangerous intersections, speeding concerns, pedestrian crash trends, school-zone safety issues, or rural roadway risks. It can also support communities that need to build the planning framework first before moving into construction or implementation.
A simple way to explain the program is this: SS4A may fund either the planning effort to build a roadway safety roadmap or the implementation of projects already identified in that roadmap.
What might SS4A look like in practice?
The flexibility of SS4A makes it relevant to a wide range of local safety concerns. A city with frequent pedestrian injuries downtown might pursue a Planning and Demonstration Grant to create a safety Action Plan focused on school routes, downtown crossings, and corridor-level crash trends. If that city already has an Action Plan, it may instead seek Implementation funding for refuge islands, high-visibility crosswalks, curb extensions, traffic calming, and signal timing changes in high-risk areas.
A county with dangerous rural roads could use planning funds to identify fatal and serious injury trends across rural corridors, then later pursue implementation funding for shoulder widening, speed management, upgraded warning systems, or other systemic safety counter measures.
A municipality dealing with speeding and school-zone concerns may be able to use SS4A for school-area safety planning or for implementation projects such as speed feedback signs, crossing improvements, signal modifications, traffic calming, and corridor redesign, provided those projects are supported by an eligible Action Plan.
The program may also support certain post-crash response strategies when they are clearly framed as roadway safety initiatives. For example, a city or county could potentially position a dispatch alerting or post-crash care coordination system as part of a larger fatality reduction strategy if the request is tied to documented crash trends, a high-injury network, and an eligible Action Plan. The strongest applications in this area do not read like general software upgrade requests. They show how the investment would improve post-crash care and responder coordination in ways that reduce deaths and serious injuries.
Similarly, a municipality may be able to pursue funding for a post-crash care initiative that equips its ambulance service to carry and administer blood transfusions for severe trauma patients injured in roadway crashes. A stronger version of that request would frame the project as a roadway fatality reduction effort tied to high-injury corridors, long transport times, or documented trauma response challenges. That could include blood storage equipment, temperature-controlled transport systems, responder training, clinical protocols, coordination measures, and data tracking tied to improved time-to-treatment for critically injured crash victims.
Questions to ask before pursuing SS4A
For municipalities considering this program, a few early questions can help determine the right strategy:
· Does the community already have a safety Action Plan, Vision Zero Plan, or equivalent?
· Does that plan cover the full jurisdiction and all roadway users?
· What crash, fatality, or serious injury patterns are showing up in the data?
· Is there a high-injury corridor or dangerous intersection network?
· Is the community seeking planning funds, or is it ready to implement projects?
· Can it meet the 20% local match requirement?
These questions help clarify not only eligibility, but also whether the community is better positioned for the Planning and Demonstration track or the Implementation track.
Why SS4A matters
SS4A stands out because nearly every municipality has roadway safety concerns worth examining. Some communities need a roadmap. Others already know where the problems are and need funding to act. For jurisdictions that are not yet ready for a capital project, the Planning and Demonstration track offers a practical entry point. For those with a qualifying plan in hand, the Implementation track can help move safety priorities into action.
At a time when local leaders are under pressure to address dangerous intersections, speeding, pedestrian risk, and crash severity, SS4A gives municipalities a chance to pursue real safety improvements with substantial federal support.
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