More than half of all car crashes in the Mat-Su Borough involve pedestrians and cyclists. In fact, two-thirds of the most serious accidents involve pedestrians and cyclists. This happens on roads with no separate path.
And these crashes are not scattered across the borough. 61% of accidents involving pedestrians and cyclists happen less than a mile from a school.
Those numbers are part of a bigger picture.
The borough public works department has worked for years to improve safety around schools and at the most dangerous intersections and roads in the Mat-Su.
That effort just got some serious backing. The borough was awarded a $12.8 million federal grant called Safe Streets and Roads for All, or SS4A in addition to $3.2 million in local funding.
The data that helped win the grant came from the Mat-Su Comprehensive Safety Action Plan, or CSAP. Work on the safety plan began with a smaller Safe Streets grant in 2024. The Mat-Su Borough Assembly approved the safety plan last year.
The borough public works department could then apply for a larger, more competitive Safe Streets grant after the Safety Action Plan was approved by the Assembly.
Jamie Taylor is the program manager for the Safe Streets grant for the borough. On her desk sits a thick four-inch notebook on the Safety Action Plan.
She says the funds will go toward six projects identified in that notebook. Four of the projects are school-area specific.
Shaw Elementary will see a roundabout at the intersection of Wasilla-Fishhook Road and Paradise Lane. The work includes a separated path and sidewalk between Charley Drive and Wasilla-Fishhook.
The underpass of the Parks Highway and the railroad tracks from Newcomb Park to Railroad Avenue in Wasilla will be improved. Additional improvements along Bogard Road and Crusey Street are planned as well.
Colony Middle and High School will get a separated pathway along the east side of 49th State Street. New crosswalks will be added. A special rapid flashing beacon will be installed at the southern driveway into Colony High.
Auklet Avenue in Palmer will be paved. It connects to the underpass of the Glenn Highway that leads to Bogard Road. A new sidewalk will be built on the north side of Arctic Avenue from Gulkana Street to Academy Charter School.
Along with the four school projects, a fifth project continues the Comprehensive Safety Action Plan work. Officials from the Mat-Su Borough, Alaska Department of Transportation, Alaska State Troopers, and the Mat-Su Borough School District hold monthly meetings.
Crystal Smith is the school district transportation supervisor. She notes that everyone at that table lives in the Valley. She says many schools were built with almost no safe walking infrastructure. Her hope is that every student has the option to walk to school safely.
The grant also provides for more signs on pedestrian pathways throughout the borough that say no motor vehicles. A lot more signs. Taylor says it’s in response to a steady stream of complaints.
She notes that signs or not, it’s against Alaska Administrative Code to ride a motorized vehicle on a pedestrian pathway. Enforcement is a problem. Most pathways sit outside city limits, and the Alaska State Troopers are thinly staffed in the borough.
None of this happens overnight. Funding comes in phases: permitting, then design, then construction. Residents won’t see the results for a year or more.
“There’s so many moving parts,” Taylor says.
She likes that the borough isn’t just patching things up after something goes wrong. It’s working toward the future.
However, the grant does not cover long-term maintenance. That responsibility falls to the cities and the borough.
Full details on both the Mat-Su Comprehensive Safety Action Plan and Safe Streets and Roads for All grant can be found at SS4A.matsugov.us.
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Emily Forstner reported this Page Two article and yours truly, Lee Henrikson produced it. If you have an idea for a Page 2 topic, please email us at page2@radiofreepalmer.org.
That’s it for today and the news on Page Two on Friday August 21, 2026.
Photo: Jamie Taylor holds up the Comprehensive Safety Action Plan notebooks. Photo by Emily Forstner.