Juneau residents will have multiple opportunities this week to provide feedback about how and where they’d like to see changes to better the capital city’s roadways for all users.
The city is hosting three open house events to invite the public to learn more about its Safe Streets For All plan. In 2024, the city received federal grants from the Department of Transportation totaling $366,000 to create a plan for how to improve Juneau’s roadway safety. The plan would specifically target the prevention of serious injuries and fatalities, and include feedback from drivers, bicyclists, walkers and more.
Phil Huebschen, an engagement specialist with the city’s communications department, is coordinating the upcoming public meetings. They said community feedback will play a critical role in informing the priorities laid out in the plan.
“All the input that we get from the community in those workshops will really help us go beyond data insights to better understand distinct and specific lived experience of residents and pedestrians and commuters,” they said.
Roads are important to Juneau residents, according to a recent survey of city budget priorities released in February. According to the results, 58% of respondents selected to prioritize winter maintenance of streets, roads and bridges.
The Safe Streets For All plan will include a data-driven review of all streets in the borough — both city streets and state streets like Egan Drive — and especially those in the Lemon Creek area. Huebschen says the area is historically underserved and the city wants to bolster its connectivity. It will take into account previously recorded crashes, historical trends, conditions, severity of injuries and other data points.
Huebschen said that while that data is important, it might exclude crucial safety details that can only be filled in by residents coming to the meetings and speaking up about them.
“Providing that input really helps CBJ compile a report that is thorough and multi-dimensional, and it lets us use this information to serve residents in Juneau and people who live here in the best way we can,” they said.
The meetings will be held on:
- Monday at 5 p.m. at Dzantik’i Heeni campus in Lemon Creek
- Tuesday at 5 p.m. at City Hall downtown, and
- Wednesday at 5 p.m. at the Mendenhall Valley library.
If you are unable to attend the meetings, the city also offers a survey and comment map on its website.
