Roughly two-thirds of a $600 million down payment aimed at decreasing deaths along Texas highways will go to straightening roads, improving lighting and adding guardrails, under a plan being considered by state transportation officials.

The Texas Department of Transportation proposes spending $390 million, 65 percent of the total safety money set aside by the Texas Transportation Commission, to reduce incidents in which drivers veer from the roadway. Though causes vary, so-called “departure incidents” represent 41 percent of the serious injury and fatal injury crashes in Texas last year.

Another $60 million will go toward pedestrian improvements, which claimed 10 percent of the money despite being more than 21 percent of the roadway fatalities statewide.

The money, an unprecedented $300 million each of the next two years, is the first tangible effort to eliminate roadway fatalities on Texas, which leads the nation in automobile-related deaths. The Houston region leads major metro areas in the nation in preventable roadway deaths, a Houston Chronicle investigation revealed last year.

“If the $600 million is spent wisely and it does affect the goal we have set for ourselves, it would be the best $600 million we ever spent,” transportation commission Chairman Bruce Bugg said. “But the emphasis is on the word wisely.”

Money specifically for safety represents less than 5 percent of TxDOT’s $76.2 billion ten-year Unified Transportation Program, which transportation commissioners are set to approve next month.

“We have dramatically under-invested in transportation safety for a while, from a cost-benefit analysis point of view,” said Jay Blazek Crossley, who through his nonprofit Farm & City advocates for safer streets. “Every dollar proposed of this $600 million will have way more bang for the buck than every other dollar in the UTP.”

State transportation commissioners on May 30 directed TxDOT officials to identify strategies to cut Texas’ roadway fatalities — typically about 3,900 yearly — in half by 2035, and achieve zero driving-related deaths by 2050. For the first half of 2019, Texas had a confirmed 1,857 fatalities along roads, according to commission member Laura Ryan, about 50 fewer than the first six months of 2018.

“Fifty is a drop in the bucket based on the (fatality) number,” Ryan said Thursday, urging TxDOT to find solutions.

So far, Ryan said, the goal of zero fatalities has been met with early planning by staff, but derision by some Texans. She said most comments on online articles related to the goal called it “impossible.”

“The first one I blew off,” Ryan said. “The second, third, fourth kind of made me angry.”

Officials in TxDOT’s 27 districts will have wide authority over how money is spent in those areas. Each district will develop a four-year safety plan, detailing projects proposed for the money’s use.

“They’ll look and see their hot spots,” said Michael Lee, director of engineering and safety operations for TxDOT.

Possible repairs or improvements run from the expensive — such as a multi-million-dollar overpass — to simple fixes such as reflective markings on the sides of roads and more noticeable warning signs.

“Upgrades to signage and pavement markings can be as simple as adding a lighted stop sign,” Lee told transportation commissioners. “All these fixes are not expensive.”

The Houston region, the largest by population, encompassing Harris, Brazoria, Fort Bend, Galveston, Montgomery and Waller counties, has both rural and urban safety challenges.

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What is unclear is how state officials’ attempts to balance the funds addresses those varied needs. More than a quarter of the people killed along roads in the Houston TxDOT district from 2013 to 2018 were pedestrians or bicyclists. Ten percent of the safety money is aimed at pedestrian improvements, such as better signing of crossings and painted crosswalks.

“A year ago, I didn’t think we’d be able to build the moral courage statewide to be talking about investing $60 million in pedestrian safety,” Crossley said. “I wish that number were double, but this is a profoundly good move.”

Don Dixon, who often criticizes lack of investment in some growing areas of the state, cheered the inclusion of key road projects such as overpasses as a potential use of the money.

“Now, there are so many stoplights,” he said of state highways in many developing areas. “It is not only a safety issue, it is a congestion issue.”

Still, there are limits to what officials can do to make highways safer, state Sen. Robert Nichols, R-Jacksonville, chairman of the Senate Transportation Committee, said in June when officials began discussing the safety money.

“You cannot build enough infrastructure to stop distracted drivers,” Nichols said, noting cultural changes and increased enforcement of existing rules are needed.