GLEN BURNIE, MD (January 8, 2024) – The Maryland Department of Transportation Motor Vehicle Administration’s Highway Safety Office is accepting applications from groups and organizations seeking grants to fund traffic safety programs and projects that help reduce crashes, deaths and injuries on Maryland roadways. Starting today, January 8, and continuing through February 29, applicants can submit grant requests for programs and activities in Federal Fiscal Year 2025, which runs October 1, 2024, to September 30, 2025. The federal grants, distributed by Motor Vehicle Administration’s Highway Safety Office, come from the Biden Administration’s Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, also known as the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law.
Two types of grants are available: law enforcement overtime grants and general highway safety grants. General highway safety grants are available to eligible organizations including state and local governments, nonprofits and institutions of higher education. As noted in the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, special emphasis will be placed on projects in underserved or underfunded areas. Examples of activities conducted in the past include:
- bringing interactive simulators or presentations to high schools;
- helping health departments with traffic injury prevention (including distribution of child safety seats);
- developing local strategic highway safety plans;
- creating local campaigns focused on one or more element of safe driving;
- producing educational materials to distribute within communities; and
- coordinating community safety events such as bike rodeos or safety days.
“Maryland families have experienced far too many injuries and fatalities on our roadways,” said Motor Vehicle Administrator Chrissy Nizer, who also serves as Governor Wes Moore’s Highway Safety Representative. “As we look to advance Maryland’s goal of zero fatalities on our roadways, we’re looking for new and innovative partners to work with us to reduce crashes and save lives.”
Eligible projects must support and implement strategies outlined in the Maryland Strategic Highway Safety Plan and address the four E’s of highway safety – education, enforcement, engineering and emergency medical services. In 2023, the Moore-Miller Administration awarded more than $11.5 million in grants for a variety of highway safety initiatives, including impaired driving prevention programs, local police enforcement efforts and school-based education and awareness campaigns. Past grant recipients can be viewed here.
The Motor Vehicle Administration’s Highway Safety Office administers grant-funded programs that address priority areas such as impaired driving prevention, occupant protection, aggressive and distracted driving prevention and safety for pedestrians, bicyclists, motorcyclists, young drivers and mature drivers. Grants also can be awarded for projects that help improve the quality of traffic safety data. Eligible projects to improve the timeliness, accuracy, completeness, uniformity, integration and accessibility of state crash, driver, vehicle, roadway, citation and adjudication, and injury surveillance databases must support and implement strategies in the Maryland Traffic Records Strategic Plan.
For more information and to apply for a highway safety grant, click here or call 410-787-4050. Learn more about the Motor Vehicle Administration’s Highway Safety Office by visiting ZeroDeathsMD.gov or on Facebook, X/Twitter and Instagram at @ZeroDeathsMD.
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