City of Tucson Department of Transportation and Mobility is offering the Safe Streets Mini Grant Program, providing grants of up to $75,000 for traffic calming improvements in residential neighborhoods across Tucson. The program aims to prioritize under-resourced areas and engage community members in reducing residential speeding and enhancing livability. Eligible applicants include neighborhood groups, community-based organizations, and businesses within Tucson city limits. The City anticipates awarding approximately $350,000 in the first year of the program and will work directly with awarded projects to design and implement traffic calming initiatives. For more information, visit City of Tucson DTM website.

The City of Tucson Department of Transportation and Mobility is now accepting applications for the new Safe Streets Mini Grant Program. The new program establishes an inclusive, community-led process to deliver traffic calming improvements to residential neighborhoods across the city, prioritizing under-resourced areas that could not otherwise fund their own traffic calming improvements via the existing Neighborhood Traffic Management Program.

The new program is funded by the voter-approved Proposition 411 Tucson Delivers: Safe Streets Program, under the Systemwide Safety Improvements project category. Neighborhood safety improvements will include traffic circles, chicanes, speed humps, and other traffic calming features.

To learn more about the application process, the requirements, and to complete an application, visit the website at https://tucsondelivers.tucsonaz.gov/pages/safe-streets-mini-grant-program.

The goal of the program is to offer community members the opportunity to champion projects that reduce residential speeding and improve livability through a competitive selection process for funding and implementation.

3 Steps to Apply for Traffic Calming:

Identify potential traffic calming locations-neighborhood streets with cut-through traffic, speeding, and other dangerous driving behavior have great potential.

Application Review Process- Summary
Applications will be accepted on a rolling basis, as long as funds are available.
Application review cycles will occur once the first year in February 2024. Program staff will evaluate the program at the end of the pilot year and will consider increasing the review frequency to occur two times a year (e.g. February and August) based on the volume of applications received in the first pilot year.
If your application passes the first phase of the evaluation- the Eligibility Screen- you will be placed on the eligible list. DTM staff score the projects on this list using the prioritization criteria that are recommended for approval by the CSCC.
Note: Even if your street meets all of the eligibility criteria and is on the list of potential projects, it still may not be selected for the final list of traffic calming projects. Funding for the Neighborhood Traffic Calming Program each year is dependent on the tax revenues each year, thus DTM can only select a handful of projects to construct. However, your street will remain on the list of potential projects the following year(s).
Connect with neighbors- talk to neighbors and build support.
Apply- City staff are here to help with an online or paper application.
The application period begins on October 16th. Applications will be accepted on an ongoing basis, throughout the year, with the first round of projects awarded in the spring of 2024.

Funding will be awarded based on need, feasibility, neighborhood support, and available funds.

The City anticipates awarding around $350,000 to neighborhoods the first year of the program. The maximum funding amount per project is $75,000. Once awarded, the project team will work directly with neighbors to design and build traffic calming projects through a collaborative process.

For further questions, contact Gabriela Barillas-Longoria at gabriela.barillas@tucsonaz.gov or by calling 520-591-1606.

About the Program

The Safe Streets Mini-Grant Program establishes an inclusive, community-led process to deliver traffic calming improvements to residential neighborhoods across the city, prioritizing under-resourced areas that could not otherwise fund their own traffic calming improvements via the existing Neighborhood Traffic Management Program.

The goal of the program is to offer community members the opportunity to champion projects that reduce residential speeding and improve livability through a competitive selection process for funding and implementation.

City staff and the Complete Streets Coordinating Council (CSCC) will prioritize projects in areas of Tucson where there is a history of disinvestment or limited private investment.