KACTS Safety Action Plan

KACTS Safety Action Plan - endorsed by the KACTS Policy Committee on October 2, 2024

 
The Kittery Area Comprehensive Transportation System (KACTS) and its consultant team partnered with the region’s communities to undertake a Safety Action Plan to improve roadway safety outcomes in southern Maine. This effort aims to significantly reduce or eliminate roadway fatalities and serious injuries by transforming how the system is designed, operated, and managed through the application of a Safe System approach and the implementation of Vision Zero principles.

What Is Vision Zero?

Vision Zero is based on a shared responsibility between system designers and users to change the safety culture on the road and has generated significant reductions in roadway tragedies across the globe, with potential to make a strong impact in the United States. By collaborating with community members and leveraging new data-driven analytic methods, the project team worked to uncover the root causes of crashes, identify the areas of highest risk, and develop broad strategies – policies and educational efforts and a prioritized list of projects that will produce a safer transportation system for all users.

How Did We Get Here?

The Safe Streets for All (SS4A) Grant Program, established under the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law (BIL), allocated $5 billion to be distributed towards enhancing roadway safety outcomes over a five-year period (2022 to 2026). This funding supported the KACTS Safety Action Plan – one of multiple such efforts undertaken throughout the State of Maine and across the United States. Despite this plan’s reliance on a highly technical approach, its success and the region’s progress towards Vision Zero can only come through substantial engagement with individuals and stakeholders across southern Maine. The community is a vital partner in this process.

Public & Steering Committee Meeting: August 8, 2024, 10:30 AM

This meeting of the public and project steering committee included a review of the contents of the draft Safety Action Plan, discussion the prioritized project list, and presentation of key findings.
 
 

Public Meeting: February 29, 2024, 6:00 PM at Kennebunk High School 

This initial public meeting included a review of the study’s scope and intent, recent crash data and trends, contributing factors in fatal and severe injury crashes, maps of the High-Injury and High-Risk Networks, and a Q&A.