The City of Osage Beach is developing a plan to improve safety for all roadway users, and we need your help!

Osage Beach is pleased to announce the launch of a Comprehensive Safety Action Plan. Funded through a Safe Streets and Roads for All (SS4A) grant from the U.S. Department of Transportation, this effort will take a close look at the community’s most urgent traffic safety challenges and identify strategies to improve safety for everyone while advancing the goal of eliminating traffic deaths and serious injuries in Osage Beach.

As part of the grant, the project will also include a demonstration project, giving residents and visitors the chance to see firsthand how safety-focused infrastructure improvements can make a difference.

What are we going to study? For traffic safety, little changes can create big impacts. That is why we will take a close look at Osage Beach’s crash data, factors that contribute to crashes, road and traffic conditions, community input, and existing policies.

What types of recommendations can you expect? Lots of different options. Recommendations could include changes to street designs, how funding for roadway improvements is allocated, education efforts around dangerous habits, and improving emergency response systems. The plan will also identify future projects and safety programs that contribute to the goal of eliminating traffic fatalities and serious injuries.

How will the plan be used? Once the plan is complete, Osage Beach can apply for additional grant funding to implement the strategies in the plan, transforming the community’s input and the recommendations into real improvements. Your input will help shape a safer, more connected community for everyone. That’s why community participation is so important, the strategies identified in this plan will directly impact your community and all those who live, work and travel in Osage Beach.

We want to hear from you to understand your vision for roadway safety in Osage Beach. Here are ways to get involved and receive updates:

1. Sign up for emails on the right-hand side of this page. Future engagement opportunities and project updates will be shared via email throughout this process.
2. Take the survey below.
3. Add comments to the map below.

There will also be pop-up events, Board of Aldermen meetings, and a public meeting occurring throughout the process to gather diverse input and perspectives that will shape the plan. Public participation helps inform final recommendations, provide information that may not be available through data, support data findings, and foster greater community support for the final adoption of the plan.

SS4A is a grant program to improve roadway safety by significantly reducing and eventually eliminating roadway fatalities and serious injuries. The program provides funding to develop tools that strengthen a community’s approach to roadway safety, saves lives, and prevents serious harm. The Safe System Approach is used as a framework to meet program goals.

What is the Safe System Approach?

The Safe System Approach focuses on both human mistakes and human vulnerability and designs a system with many redundancies in place to protect everyone. In support of this approach, safety programs are focused on infrastructure, human behavior, responsible oversight of the vehicle and transportation system industry, and emergency response.

Safe System Approach Objectives

• Safer People: Encourage safe, responsible driving and behavior by people who use our roads and create conditions that prioritize their ability to reach their destination unharmed.
• Safer Speeds: Promote safer speeds in all roadway environments through a combination of thoughtful, equitable, context-appropriate speed-limit setting, targeted education, outreach campaigns, and enforcement.
• Post-Crash Care: Enhance the survivability of crashes through expedient access to emergency medical care, while creating a safe working environment for vital first responders and preventing secondary crashes through robust traffic incident management practices.
• Safer Vehicles: Expand the availability of vehicle systems and features that help to prevent crashes and minimize the impact of crashes on both occupants and non-occupants.
• Safer Roads: Design roadway environments to mitigate human mistakes and account for injury tolerances, encourage safer behaviors, and facilitate safe travel by the most vulnerable users.