The intersection at McAndrews and Biddle roads has a higher-than-average crash rate in Medford. 

The city of Medford will get $400,000 in federal funding that will help the city plan safer streets and other transportation safety plans for the long term.

Medford was among the top recipients in Oregon awarded planning grants through the U.S. Department of Transportation’s Safe Streets and Roads for All program, according to a release issued Monday by Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Oregon. The federal grant utilizes funding from President Biden’s Bipartisan Infrastructure Law. 

Out of the nearly $2.65 million in grant funding awarded to nine Oregon cities, counties and tribes, only the city of Corvallis was awarded more than Medford, with an award of $664,000.

According to Medford Public Works Director John Vial, Medford’s $400,000 grant will cover the majority of costs to hire a third-party consultant to help the city develop a half-million-dollar traffic safety action plan.

“Medford hasn’t had a safety action plan as long as anyone can remember,” Vial said.

The federal grant requires a 20% match, so the city will cover the remaining $100,000.

Developing the plan will involve a “fairly intensive, data-driven program” delving deep into the factors leading to the most crash-prone areas within Medford city limits.

“They’re going to be looking at our system as a whole,” Vial said.

Vial described a wide variety of potential factors for accidents, ranging from speeding to the absence of sidewalks. For instance, a curvy road where motorists keep veering off the road may seem like a speeding problem at first, but Vial asked aloud if the problem is “actually a lack of better lines.”

“You dig into the number and really try to determine what actually causes the problem,” Vial said.

He said that some factors may seem obvious on the surface, “but it’s really not.”

“If we knew the problem, we’d just go fix it,” Vial said.

Medford recorded 26 road fatalities between 2017 and 2021, according to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration’s Fatality Analysis Reporting System or FARS.

Vial said that compared to other cities, “We are not disproportionally high,” but the city wants to address it as part of its vision of zero traffic fatalities.

“That’s 26 people whose families are grieving because of a fatal traffic accident,” he said.

Medford averages 6.1 fatalities per 100,000 population, according to the U.S. DOT website. Nationwide, FARS data show that there were 12.94 fatalities per 100,000 population in 2021, the most recent data available.

Jackson County as a whole had 16.98 fatal crashes per 100,000 in 2021, based on 38 fatal crashes that year — including eight crashes deemed to be intersection-related.

Beyond fatalities, Vial said the third-party contractor will also look into crash-prone intersections and the reasons behind them. He said that intersections monitored by traffic cameras such as Biddle and McAndrews roads and Delta Waters Road and Crater Lake Highway each have higher-than-average crash rates. 

It will take years for the traffic safety action plan to be completed — and for motorists and pedestrians to see results according to Vial.

The city will not be eligible to start spending the money until the end of 2024, and Vial anticipates two years to complete the study because the project involves a “robust engagement process.”

That will include processes of engaging the public, data analysis and writing reports, engaging Medford City Council and other city committees in 2025 and 2026, according to Vial.

“Everything will be in place towards the end of ’26,” Vial said. “Following that, hopefully we’ll be able to start implementing some of these things.”