Grant Details

In New York State, the Governor's Traffic Safety Committee (GTSC) uses strategic planning to help determine the state's priority highway safety problems and to develop program strategies for addressing these problems. The results of this process are reported annually in the State's Highway Safety Strategic Plan (HSSP) which is prepared by the GTSC staff, based on input from the traffic safety community. The FY 2024-2026 Highway Safety Strategic Plan (HSSP) can be viewed online at: https://trafficsafety.ny.gov/system/files/documents/2023/10/ny_fy-24-26_3hsp-amended-8-21-23-with-cover.pdf

The NYS HSSP identified the following priorities to address trends of increasing numbers of crashes involving specific highway users and to halt the development of unfavorable trends in certain types of crashes. GTSC now seeks participation from highway safety partners at the state and local level to address these issues.

• Impaired Driving - Identify and implement measures to reduce alcohol impaired and drugged driving. This includes high visibility enforcement programs and public education/awareness campaigns via print, broadcast and cable television, radio and social media outlets 
• Police Traffic Services - Support vigorous enforcement of dangerous driving behaviors, especially those pertaining to speeding, distracted driving, seat belt use, running red lights and aggressive driving
• Motorcycle Safety - Increase the availability of education for motorcycle operators and awareness of safe motorcycling through the adoption of recommendations from the Motorcycle Safety Assessment and encourage operators to obtain proper license endorsements
• Pedestrian & Bicycle Safety - Support efforts to improve pedestrian and bicycle safety across the state, and particularly in New York City. This includes high visibility enforcement activities during two-week periods each June.
• Occupant Protection - Conduct high-visibility enforcement and related public information and education activities to increase seat belt use in New York State. GTSC will continue to work with police agencies to have them adopt seat belt use policies, conduct local seat belt use surveys, raise public awareness and employ enforcement strategies including increased nighttime and multiagency details.
• Traffic Records - Support state and local police agencies in adopting technology to improve in-car traffic ticket and crash report recording and transmission, focusing heavily on successful transmissions from the New York City Police Department. This includes employing technology to improve traffic records systems to provide better access to accurate data on the state's drivers and roadways to assist in problem identification, program implementation and evaluation
• Community Traffic Safety Programs - Community Traffic Safety Programs are designed to be comprehensive in nature, with opportunities for outreach to a broad spectrum of groups within local areas.
• Planning & Administration - Through the planning and administration function, GTSC is responsible for the overall coordination of the state's highway safety program in compliance with the new requirements established under the FAST Act. The GTSC staff, working with the state's traffic safety networks, grantees and other partners, will continue to identify highway safety problems in New York and assist in the development of programs to address these problems. The staff also provides support services for the general administration of the highway safety program.

Structured Programs:

• Child Passenger Safety (CPS) - These grants will continue to support the educational activities of child passenger safety programs through the four different initiatives or schedules: fitting stations, awareness trainings, car seat check events and car seat education & distribution programs for low income families.
• Police Traffic Services (PTS) - The Police Traffic Services (PTS) grant program will provide funding to law enforcement agencies to conduct traffic enforcement. In addition to having a current mandatory seat belt use policy in place for police officers of the department, participation in the national Click It or Ticket seat belt enforcement mobilization is required. This program will also fund agencies to conduct traffic enforcement details based on the crash data of their local jurisdiction, with the goal of impacting motorist behavior and improving traffic safety within their communities.