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Rhode Island Safe Streets for All
Safety is a serious concern for everyone traveling in Rhode Island. Through the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) Safe Streets for All (SS4A) program, RIPTA secured funding to support the state and participating communities in planning for infrastructure improvements that will prevent injuries and save lives. With this SS4A project and other efforts through the Division of Statewide Planning and the Rhode Island Department of Transportation, the state is taking steps toward improving safety on all roadways.
The RI SS4A project created municipal Safety Action Plans (SAPs) for 31 participating communities, as well as a statewide SAP. The SAPs make recommendations for roadway improvements to effectively implement a tangible version of the Safe Streets for All mission in a way that feels right for each community. They covers shifting safety needs, known and emerging areas of safety improvement, and identification of priority projects. Ultimately, the SAPs put the State of Rhode Island and its municipalities in position for further federal implementation funding.
Project Approach and Timeline
The SS4A program addresses roadway safety through the Safe System Approach, which builds and layers multiple types of protections into the transportation system to prevent crashes and minimize injuries and fatalities. It provides a holistic approach acknowledging six guiding tenets: that death and serious injuries are unacceptable, humans will make mistakes, humans are vulnerable, responsibility is shared, safety is proactive, and redundancy is crucial. These principles promote safer people, roads, vehicles, speeds, and post-crash care.
RIPTA’s statewide SS4A project focused on a three-tiered safety analysis to identify an overall view of statewide roadway safety, a location-based crash record of the past 5 years, and an analysis of potential future crash areas. Throughout the summer of 2024, the project team attended local events and hosted pop-up engagement in each participating community to share information about this project and gather input from the public. The public input gathered and the analysis of crash data were both key elements of the final municipal and statewide plans that were developed in 2025. To learn more about a particular municipality’s final Safety Action Plan, please contact that municipality directly.
List of Participating Cities & Towns
Barrington
Bristol
Burrillville
Central Falls
Coventry
Cranston
Cumberland
East Greenwich
East Providence
Foster
Glocester
Hopkinton
Jamestown
Johnston
Little Compton
Middletown
Narragansett
New Shoreham
Newport
North Kingstown
North Providence
Pawtucket
Portsmouth
Richmond
Smithfield
South Kingstown
Warren
West Warwick
Westerly
Woonsocket