Terre Haute adopts 'Safe Streets' action plan aiming to eliminate traffic deaths by 2050

The Terre Haute City Council on Thursday adopted the Safe Streets Terre Haute safety action plan, a federally funded initiative that sets a Vision Zero-style goal to eliminate traffic deaths and serious injuries in the city by 2050.

Maitri Desai, city planner, and Heidi Thomas of Lochmuller Group presented the plan supported by the U.S. Department of Transportation’s Safe Streets and Roads for All grant. The consultants said the plan combines crash data from 2018 through 2024, public engagement and stakeholder interviews to identify a high-injury network, 20 priority corridors and three focus areas: intersections, bicycle and pedestrian safety, and traffic calming for safer speeds.

Heidi Thomas said the crash analysis found 15,180 crashes in the city during the study period and 35 fatal crashes; pedestrian-involved crashes were highlighted as a growing concern, with pedestrian fatalities accounting for a disproportionate share of serious outcomes. The plan includes a publicly available crash dashboard on the city’s data hub, a safety toolkit with countermeasures for targeted locations, and nine policy-improvement strategies intended to guide implementation.

Council members expressed support for actions to make streets safer for pedestrians and bicyclists. Councilperson Nation noted only 29% of bicyclists reported feeling safe and urged continued focus on multimodal safety.

By adopting Resolution 6/2026, the council authorized the city to move forward with implementation priorities and use the plan as a guide for project selection and policy changes. Staff said the plan and toolkit are available on the city website under engineering planning and that next steps will include targeted project development and continued community engagement.

The adoption is a planning and policy step; specific capital projects, funding allocations and timelines will require separate actions and budget decisions.