GSATS The Safe System Approach

The Safe System approach to roadway safety is FHWA’s initiative to achieve the zero deaths vision.  The Grand Strand Area Transportation Study (GSATS) is the Metropolitan Planning Organization (MPO) responsible for transportation planning and programming in Horry County and Georgetown County in South Carolina and Brunswick County in North Carolina.  GSATS is committed to implementing the Safe System Approach for their service area, which begins with the development of a Safety Action Plan.  In 2022, GSATS was awarded a Safe Streets and Roads for All (SS4A) grant for the development of this comprehensive Safety Action Plan (SAP).  This plan will identify the most significant roadway safety concerns in the region and strategies to address roadway safety issues aimed at reducing and eliminating serious-injury and fatal crashes affecting all roadway users.  The SAP is the is the first step toward implementing safety improvements with federal funding from the SS4A program.

The Safe System approach recognizes that thousands of lives are lost each year in traffic crashes with the greatest increase amongst pedestrians and bicyclists.  Fatal crashes may also be disproportionate amongst various age groups, ethnicities, and environments.

“Traffic crashes are a leading cause of death for teenagers in America, and disproportionately impact people who are Black, American Indian, and live in rural communities.  We face a crisis on our roadways; it is both unacceptable and solvable.” – U.S. Department of Transportation National Roadway Safety Strategy

The Safe System approach acknowledges that humans make mistakes, and those mistakes should never lead to death.  Therefore, by anticipating human error and designing and managing infrastructure to reduce risk, the impact of those mistakes can be mitigated to avoid serious harm or death.  This holistic approach addresses protections for safe road users, safe vehicles, safe speeds, safe roads, and post-crash care.

The goal of this SAP is to plan, develop, and operate equitable streets and networks that prioritize safety, comfort, and connectivity for all users.  With input from the project team, stakeholders, and the public, the development of the SAP will include a data driven approach to correlate the system user types, equity, accessibility, and vulnerable users to crash information assimilating cause, context, and location.  The compilation of this information will lead to the development of recommendations, countermeasures, cost estimates, project prioritization, project tracking mechanism, best practices, and funding opportunities in pursuit of the zero deaths vision.

Components of a Safety Action Plan

A Safety Action Plan includes several components that are required to apply for grants to implement the projects identified in the plan.  Those include:

What is Eligible?

Implementation grants may be used for several project types including:  sidewalks, trails, bike lanes, and crosswalks; low-cost, tactical strategies; traffic calming and speed management; lighting, signals, and safety; connecting schools and transit; street design changes; education and enforcement; and, safety action planning.

GSATS has partnered with AECOM to pursue the Safety Action Plan effort, which began in April of 2024.  The Project Team is led by GSATS with AECOM bringing nationwide expertise in safety action planning.  Steering Committee representatives include the City of Myrtle Beach, City of North Myrtle Beach, City of Conway, City of Georgetown, Town of Surfside Beach, Town of Ocean Isle Beach, Town of Shallotte, Town of Holden Beach, Town of Sunset, Town of Calabash, Town of Carolina Shores, Horry County, Georgetown County, Brunswick County, Cape Fear RPO, GSATS, Cost RTA, SCDOT, NCDOT, FHWA, and a cycling community liaison.

The project team meets bi-weekly on this effort.  The Steering Committee will have three meetings with the first occurring on June 6, 2024.  There will be four public meetings in July spread out in locations to involve the entire GSATS study area and then four public meetings at the end of the study.  In addition to the public meetings, a virtual public engagement survey will be used to crowdsource feedback on the study.  Click the button below to go to that survey.

Study Area Background