Amarillo Cuts Crash Goals by 35% With New Transportation Safety Plan

Local residents will see a coordinated push over the next decade to make Amarillo’s streets safer and its transportation network more connected, following the City of Amarillo’s adoption of its first Safe Streets and Roads for All (SS4A) Plan in April 2025. The policy sets a goal of reducing fatal and serious injury crashes by 35% by 2035 and has already helped secure three federal grants, according to city documents.

The SS4A Plan dovetails with the Amarillo Metropolitan Transportation Plan (MTP), a federally required 25-year blueprint for the region that must be updated at least every five years to reflect shifting growth patterns and safety priorities. For Amarillo residents, that means the roads, transit routes and bicycle lanes they use daily are being re-evaluated in real time to match where the city is heading, not just where it has been.

What the plan means for daily commutes and safety

The practical impact for residents is already taking shape through the TxDOT Amarillo District’s public review of the 2027-2030 Rural Transportation Improvement Program (RTIP), completed in April 2026. The RTIP outlines four years of multimodal projects that touch highways, public transit and bicycle facilities across the district. For someone driving from the outskirts into central Amarillo, that could mean smoother road surfaces, better signal timing or new bike lanes along corridors that currently see high crash rates.

At the same time, Amarillo City Transit is developing a Coordinated Public Transit Human Services Transit Plan, aimed at improving transit services by coordinating with local agencies that serve seniors, people with disabilities and low-income residents. For residents who rely on the bus system to reach jobs, medical appointments or grocery stores, this effort could result in more reliable schedules or new routes that connect directly to service centers.

Longer-range projects on the horizon

Looking further ahead, TxDOT is conducting an I-27 Feasibility Study to evaluate upgrading US 87/US 287 from Amarillo north to Dumas to interstate standards. If carried forward, that project would affect anyone who commutes between Amarillo and the Panhandle’s northern communities, potentially cutting travel times and improving freight movement along a corridor that sees heavy truck traffic.

For residents, the overarching message of these overlapping plans is that city and state transportation officials are working to align local roads, bus routes and safety targets with the region’s projected 25-year growth horizon, as required under federal law. No specific timeline for design or construction work tied to the I-27 study has been released, and the RTIP remains subject to final approval. But taken together, the policies signal a deliberate effort to shift Amarillo’s transportation system from reactive maintenance to forward-looking investment focused on reducing the most dangerous types of crashes.”