Discussing safety transportation technology will only a part of a successful application, but electing the right technology partners can put you in the best position to:

1. Hit every subcomponent for the Safety Analysis, Strategy and Project Selections, and Progress and Transparency components.

2. Make sure you are fully complying with and exceeding expectations for SS4A’s data requirement.

3. Hit and exceed expectations for the Action Plan selection criterion.

4. Successfully perform supplemental action plan items SS4A grants are divided into action plan grants and implementation plan grants. For more information on implementation grants, click here.

Contact us at sales@flowlabs.ai to schedule a 30-minute consultation on your SS4A application.

Action Plan Grants Overview

Action Plan Grants fund agencies seeking to “develop or complete” a safety action plan. Action Plans are comprehensive strategies to address fatalities.

• Action Plans are composed of 8 components, all of which are made up of subcomponents that agencies must hit.
  
• USDOT will fund up to 80% of the grant.
  
• Expected minimum funding of $200,000 for all applicants.
  
• Expected maximum of $1,000,000 for a political subdivision of a State or a federally recognized Tribal government.
  
• Expected maximum of $5,000,000 for a metropolitan planning organization (MPO) or a joint application composed of a multi jurisdictional group.
• Action plans are expected to last between 12 to 24 months.
  

How Can Flow Labs Help With Action Plan Grants?

Hitting Subcomponents‍

• Safety Analysis: While many agencies have a system-wide methodology for measuring crashes, these subcomponents also call for agencies to analyze the “existing conditions” and “contributing factors” that cause crashes across “all roadways within the jurisdiction.” We measure leading indicators of unsafe driving, including red light running, dilemma zone entry, speeding, aggressive acceleration, and aggressive deceleration, on an regional/system, network/corridor, intersection/signal, and phase/movement level.
  
• Strategy and Project Selections: According to the subcomponents, all selected projects must use “the best available evidence and noteworthy practices.” Flow Labs’ platform utilizes proprietary algorithms (also known as cost functions) to optimize traffic flow for both safety and mobility, enabling agencies to minimize travel times and transportation’s environmental impact without jeopardizing the safety of vulnerable road users. In contrast, historically, adaptive traffic control solutions have optimized traffic flow for mobility only, endangering pedestrians and cyclists.
  
• Progress and Transparency: All of the subcomponents are covered by our project performance measurement platform, which enables agencies to measure the ROI and safety impact of any project in under a minute. As a result, agencies will be able to consistently and accurately evaluate every project in their safety plan, and therefore track their Action Plan progress and “ensure ongoing transparency.”
  

Data Collection Requirement

‍USDOT states that agencies must “consider, budget for and implement” data collection methods to evaluate the effectiveness of their safety initiatives. This section is similar to the “Progress and Transparency” component of your Action Plan, and is critical to project evaluators. The stronger your data collection method, the stronger your argument will be for this section of your application. Flow Labs’ data is:

• Industry-leading: Flow Labs’ platform is the first platform to integrate data from signal, sensor, and connected vehicle data. Flow Labs’ platform architecture is designed to integrate all datasets that an agency has access to, including crash histories.
  
• Comprehensive: Flow Labs captures metrics at a phase/movement, intersection/signal, corridor/network, and systemwide level. Unlike detectors, which can only gather data from near to where they’re placed, our integrated data approach enables us to collect reliable data from any point on a roadway.
  
• Accurate: Our data has been proven to be 94.4% accurate in the field.
  
• Affordable: Our hardware-free data collection method generates 10 times more data than a modern detection system for 1/300th of the cost.
  

Selection Criterion

• “Employ low-cost, high-impact strategies that can improve safety over a wider geographical area:” Because Flow Labs is a hardware-free platform, we are affordable as well as rapidly deployable and scalable. Our benefit to cost ratio is 413:1, and we’re proven to lower safety risk by 51%, travel times by 24%, and emissions by 21%.
  
• “Engage with a variety of public and private stakeholders (e.g., inclusive community engagement, community benefit agreements, etc.):” Collaborate with an industry-leading start up.
  
• “Seek to adopt innovative technologies or strategies to promote safety and equity:” Flow Labs has developed world-first technologies including proprietary: data integration algorithms, AI-backed prioritization support, AI-backed diagnostic and decision support, AI-backed multimodal optimization, and a performance measurement platform. Our platform can be deployed quickly and cost-effectively, enabling agencies to prioritize and improve outcomes in traditionally underserved areas in weeks and months instead of years.
  
• “Include evidence-based projects or strategies.” We are an applied research oriented company that has conducted extensive research ourselves as individuals, as a company, and by using academic research to inform our own development.
  

Supplementary Action Plan Activities

‍These are activities that are not required to include in an action plan, but are considered beneficial to an agency’s SS4A’s safety strategy. They can be a part of the Action Plan application. Below are the Supplemental Action Plan items that Flow Labs can support:‍

• a second round of analysis
  
• expanded data collection and evaluation using integrated data
  
• testing action plan concepts before project and strategy implementation
  
• targeted equity assessments
  
• complementary planning efforts such as speed management plans