For the past several years, Youngstown has been implementing a massive infrastructure improvement project downtown. Through a hard-won BUILD grant in 2018, the City of Youngstown and the Eastgate Council of Regional Governments (the city’s MPO) have redesigned six streets to be complete streets, reducing travel lanes, expanding sidewalks, and in some cases, adding bike lanes.

This SMART2 Network project also features an autonomous shuttle to better connect downtown’s major institutions, including Mercy Health and Youngstown State University.

Eastgate and the city chose to pursue this project after public engagement sessions resulted in community support for reducing street widths and expanded pedestrian space. The existing streets were too wide for current traffic volumes, leading to high speeds and dangerous conditions for pedestrians. It also led to maintenance costs associated with maintaining the unnecessary road miles.

The SMART2 project is stabilizing Youngstown’s core and bringing activity back to downtown. Upon completion, the city will move its attention to the corridors that stretch into Youngstown’s neighborhoods.

Read more about this exciting project on our Good Ideas page!