2 projects from Coachella, Imperial Valleys to receive SCAG funding

The Southern California Association of Governments (SCAG) has conditionally awarded more than $350,000 to community and nonprofit organizations to improve pedestrian and bicycle safety in targeted communities across the six-county SCAG region – including two projects in the Coachella and Imperial Valleys.

The 26 awarded projects will receive funding through the Mini-Grants Program, which is part of Go Human, SCAG’s regional active transportation safety and encouragement campaign. Projects are awarded up to $15,000 to implement safety and engagement strategies between June and August 2022.

Among the awardees are:

Comite Civico del Valle’s “Active Community Education” project, which will educate community members in the Imperial Valley on traffic safety and the environmental and health benefits of active transportation. The project will include banners and signs with safety messaging posted in local school communities, as well as in-person educational outreach at community events.

The Youth Leadership Institute, which will conduct a youth-led research project highlighting safety concerns for young people who walk, bike, or use e-scooters in the Eastern Coachella Valley. The program will teach participants about various data collection methods for their study and will involve walking tours and audits to gather data.

The Mini-Grants Program aims to build street-level community resiliency and increase the safety of people most at risk of traffic injuries or fatalities, including Black, Indigenous, and People of Color; people with disabilities; and frontline workers, particularly those walking and biking.

Southern California has some of the highest levels of injuries and fatalities in the United States among pedestrians and bicyclists. In the six-county SCAG region, comprised of Los Angeles, Orange, Ventura, Imperial, San Bernardino and Riverside Counties, people who walk and bike make up about 3% of all trips but account for 32% of all roadway fatalities. An average of more than four people die every day in traffic collisions in the region, and 70% of all collisions are on local roads.

“Safety for people walking and biking is critical to the future of healthy, sustainable communities across Southern California,” said Jan Harnik, President of SCAG and Mayor of Palm Desert. “We’re proud that Go Human and the Mini-Grants Program can play a role in supporting active transportation education and programming on a local community level. Investing in demonstration projects identified and implemented by each community provides the opportunity to gather feedback and ideas based on experience, ultimately resulting in the best project for the community.”

The Mini-Grants program aims to provide resources to historically disinvested communities to seed projects and strategies that can result in continued and meaningful community engagement and planning efforts that improve safety locally across the region.

Go Human is funded by the California Office of Traffic Safety (OTS), through the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA).