SALEM — The city intends to direct more than $1 million of federal funds from the American Rescue Plan Act to “supporting alternative transportation measures to help reduce traffic congestion, make roadways safer, and lessen the community’s carbon footprint,” Mayor Kimberly Driscoll said in a statement Monday.
The majority of the funding will be used to continue the Salem Skipper on-demand public shuttle and to expand the Bluebikes program in the city, according to the statement. A significant portion of it —$400,000, will go towards the shuttle program, which launched in December 2020 and has provided nearly 70,000 rides since. The city’s Transportation Enhancement Fund will match this allocation, which will bring the total for the program to $800,000.
The Bluebikes program will receive $363,787, which will allow the city to add seven new stations to its Bluebikes network and an additional 44 bikes, the statement said. The funding will be matched by contributions to the program from Blue Cross Blue Shield of Massachusetts.
The rest of the funds will go to the conceptual design phase for the proposed South Salem Commuter Rail station and bicycling infrastructure projects. The total funding commitment for the proposed Commuter Rail station now sits at $465,000, with $93,000 in ARPA funds “serv[ing] as a match to leverage” an additional $372,000 in federal funding, the statement said.
Bicycling infrastructure projects received $50,000, which will be used to implement aspects of the city’s Bicycle Master Plan.
“Salem has long been on the forefront of pioneering and piloting new ways to reduce the number of private passenger vehicles on our roads,” said Driscoll in the statement. “From our public ferry to our comprehensive bike infrastructure, and from our innovative on-demand shuttle to our extensive bike and car share programs, our goal is to make it easy for residents and visitors alike to get around Salem car-free or car-light. By leveraging these federal recovery funds for these efforts, we’re able to move even closer to that goal,” she said.
Charlie McKenna can be reached at [email protected].
