new Jersey is coming off its deadliest year for pedestrians since 1986 and the third highest number of cyclists killed in a quarter century So it came as a surprise to some transportation advocates when the governor unveiled his budget proposing to cut local transportation project funding by more than half including local aid that goes towards safe street programs transit and bike path grants The governor has made road and pedestrian safety a priority throughout his administration allocating hundreds of millions of dollars to those projects So why the cuts now Colleen Wilson is the transportation reporter for Northj jersey.com the Bergen Record and she joins me to explain Colleen always good to talk to you I know you've been looking into the budget proposals when it comes to more local transportation projects things that really keep pedestrians and cyclists safe Um what are the numbers showing you for this year Yeah so there had been uh drastic increases from the Murphy administration to increase the eligibility of funds for uh local pedestrian and cyclist safety projects and other types of transportation projects Uh but we've seen those uh budgets get slashed in the tens of millions um just in the last in the last budget cycle compared to the one prior and then now this proposed one that starts July 1 um and that has to get approved by the legislature So give us some examples of what type of projects uh these fund and and how towns if at all can make up for what looks like will be a pretty big gap Yeah So in the last few years we've seen more and more municipalities on the local level and the county level uh start to develop what are called vision zero programs and plans which is uh identifying highrisisk corridors uh on on roads that they have ownership over county roads or or local roads uh where they identify areas that they see a lot of crashes or serious injuries perhaps fatalities And so once they've identified those then they seek grant funding uh from the state and the and the federal government to try to make do projects to improve those um those corridors or those uh intersections whether it's you know light technology crosswalks uh you know cur what they call road diets uh you know decreasing lanes or uh bumping out curbs It could be any number of things they really try to tailor it based on the needs of a particular intersection and a particular corridor Um they're they're very local projects and that's where we see most of these pedestrian cyclist deaths occur and that's why these funds are so important so those municipalities can plan uh uh to to make to do those projects Yeah I mean the state uh the governor's office even put out a list of the 10 most dangerous intersections in New Jersey sort of on the heels of his state of the state address where he even invited uh the mother of an 11-year-old boy who had died because of a a traffic fatality like that So what does it say then about really it seems like the dire straits that this administration is in in terms of figuring out where to make cuts if we know this is a priority of the governors and yet they're cutting this much money Exactly Uh yeah like you said uh the Murphy administration has made a point and emphasized as you as you stated and as a state in my story that pedestrian safety is really important uh as you mentioned um uh Sangita Paladani was invited and her husband was invited who have become advocates for for road safety uh to the state of the state Uh and so you know the rhetoric is good the there have the 10 intersections uh have been big investments to to uh you know address those needs Uh in fact the DOT commissioner Fran O' Conor also visited uh Burlington City High School where a crossing guard was fatally killed last year So there are there is evidence that there's this is a priority but and and you know what the Murphy administration would say is that they're facing steep financial uh issues this year They asked all departments to cut their budgets 5% uh you know but I'm sure advocates and others would like to see uh other areas be cut you know not if this is really a priority why is this uh why are these programs being targeted Yeah Is that on the table as far as you know quickly Um are any members of the legislature looking to reinstate some of those appropriations We haven't heard anything yet but we'll be anxious to follow that uh now that we're in pretty much the final month before the budget usually gets passed So we'll be an we'll be uh watching to see what happens All right Colleen Wilson with north jersey.com The record Colleen great reporting as always Thank you so much Thank you