Deep Dive: St. Louis Launches $300M Sea Change for Sustainable Transportation
By Kea Wilson | Sept 16, 2024 | Streets Blog USA
“A couple of weeks ago, I went on a three-hour bike ride with the mayor of St. Louis.
To say that it’s unusual for the leader of a major U.S. city to spend that much time sweating in the saddle would be an understatement. But like many U.S. communities awash in American Rescue Plan Act funds and finally waking up to the ravages of traffic violence, this isn’t a typical time in the Gateway City.
In recent months, my local government has quietly announced more than $300 million in street safety infrastructure set to come to our streets in the next three years, the sites of which Mayor Tishaura Jones toured alongside a loose flock of advocates, staffers, elected officials, and a single journalist: me. (In a city as small as St. Louis with an even smaller sustainable transportation community, it is safe to say that I count the majority of these people as my friends, neighbors, and fellow activists, so please consider this a blanket disclosure that I have personal relationships with pretty much everyone in this story.)
That $300 million is mostly a lucky confluence of the American Rescue Plan Act and other federal grants landing at once, and by the time it's all spent by 2027, it will represent a staggering investment for a shrinking Rust Belt city whose total annual budget is just $1.3 billion. But it’s an even more staggering shift for a region with a reputation for being among the worst in America for people outside cars.”
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