The Philomath City Council on Monday night unanimously adopted a Transportation Safety Action Plan that identifies six high-priority projects and puts the city in line to compete for federal and state grants to pay for them.
Resolution 26-28 adopts the plan and reaffirms the council’s commitment to Vision Zero, a goal of having no serious injuries or fatalities on city streets by 2040.
The highest-priority project is at the intersection of 17th and Main, where the plan calls for modifications to the existing pedestrian crossing and the elimination of the northbound left turn onto Main Street, a movement that has caused a number of safety problems.
“At no time did this feel like this was ODOT handing this down to us,” City Manager Chris Workman said. “This was very much grassroots.”
John Bosket, senior vice president of DKS Associates and project manager for the consultant team, told the council that the city had been running into barriers when applying for transportation safety grants. The most common feedback was that the projects weren’t included in an adopted transportation safety action plan.
The U.S. Department of Transportation identified these plans several years ago as a best practice for safety planning and funded many communities to complete them. That has made competition for implementation grants stiff.
“That was one of the big motivations of doing this, was to get caught up with everyone else, be eligible for a lot of those grants and be more competitive for them,” Bosket said.
The city secured state grant assistance through the Corvallis Area Metropolitan Planning Organization to develop the plan. Although the plan was not funded through a federal grant, Bosket said the consultants followed the federal process so the city would be eligible for implementation grants, including through the Safe Streets and Roads for All program.
Work began in November 2025. A multi-agency task force that met three times guided the process with representatives from Benton County, ODOT, Philomath Fire and Rescue, Philomath Police, the Philomath School District, the Oregon Cascades West Council of Governments and CAMPO. Police Chief Dave Gurski and Councilor Rich Saalsaa served on the task force.
Public input came from an open house in January, an online comment map and responses from a 2022 school traffic circulation survey. Bosket said that survey covered roughly half the city and included too many useful comments to leave out.
Bosket said one benefit of the interagency approach is that many of the most significant safety needs are on roads the city does not own.
The plan ranks the projects in order of priority, though Bosket said funding opportunities may determine which get done first.
- 17th and Main: Pedestrian crossing modifications and eliminating the northbound left turn.
- Applegate and 19th: An important location for students walking to school. Options include an all-way stop or a roundabout, but further study is needed because southbound traffic coming from the highway would have to stop close to the signal at Main.
- Main and 19th: Changes to the signalized intersection, mostly for pedestrian safety.
- 19th and College: Sight-distance problems and high speeds from drivers entering town from the south.
- 26th and Main:** A left-turn lane on the highway for turns onto 26th.
- Ninth Street north of the highway: A collection of improvements, including places to walk and bike on the hill at the north end and pedestrian crossing improvements at Pioneer Street, a safe route to school identified in 2011. Many of these are already in the city’s transportation system plan.
Using five years of crash data, the consultants identified three areas most associated with severe crashes in Philomath:
- Intersections: 50% of all crashes and 38% of fatal and serious injury crashes.
- People walking: 3% of all crashes but 25% of fatal and serious injury crashes.
- Drivers 65 and older: 12% of all crashes but 63% of fatal and serious injury crashes.
Benton County’s recently completed plan shares the intersection and older-driver emphasis areas. Corvallis’ plan shares intersections and pedestrians. Bosket said the overlap creates opportunities for joint grant applications.
Mayor Christopher McMorran asked why young drivers weren’t an emphasis area, saying he hears frequent complaints about college and high school drivers. Bosket said it came down to the data. Drivers 65 and older were involved in 63% of Philomath’s fatal and serious injury crashes, while Corvallis’ analysis pointed to young drivers instead.
“It’s just by the data,” Bosket said, noting that Corvallis’ analysis did identify young drivers as an emphasis area.
Councilor Jessica Andrade asked whether the data shows if older drivers involved in crashes are local residents or visitors. Bosket said the crash data includes little beyond age and gender. McMorran noted that most of the plan’s recommendations are physical changes that would benefit long-time residents and first-time visitors alike.
The plan also recommends five changes to city processes and standards. These include periodically updating the project list, establishing a multi-agency task force and assigning staff to monitor grant opportunities.
One recommendation is to pursue restricting through truck traffic on South 19th Street near the schools and moving it to South 13th Street, which is consistent with the city’s transportation system plan. Bosket said Benton County supports the idea. However, the county is concerned South 13th may need improvements before it can handle significant truck traffic.
Councilor Diane Crocker said a longtime truck driver told her the biggest obstacle is the turn from Chapel Drive onto 13th, where a ditch makes the corner too narrow.
“He said if they would fix that, then no big deal to move the trucks — in his opinion,” Crocker said.
A late addition to the plan addresses pedestrian crossings on Main Street between 16th and 21st. ODOT’s new ADA curb ramps there included breaks in the raised median. Task force members worried those breaks could encourage students to cross at intersections such as 16th instead of 17th, where safety improvements are concentrated. The plan calls for working with ODOT and the school district on solutions, which could include crosswalk closures, additional crossing enhancements or education efforts.
Under the plan, the task force would meet after any serious injury or fatal crash in Philomath to discuss contributing factors and look for quick fixes. Bosket said official crash data can take a year or two to show up in statistics.
The task force would also meet at least annually to track progress. Performance measures would be updated each year and posted on the city’s website, as required by the federal program.
McMorran suggested the council revive the city’s Transportation and Traffic Safety Commission, which exists in city code but hasn’t met in roughly 20 years. He proposed rewriting it to match the plan’s task force recommendation. Workman said that “seems like an easy one to check off the list.” He added that a regional group with Benton County and Corvallis is another option.
McMorran said his initial reaction to the plan was positive.
“These are the same areas that people talk to me about when I’m out in the community, and so that was reassuring,” he said.
The council adopted the resolution on a unanimous vote.
