McAllen aims for zero deaths, injuries in roads

MCALLEN, Texas (ValleyCentral) — For weeks, the City of McAllen surveyed residents about the city's roadways.

The results are now being reviewed as a map highlights problematic areas.

While some residents feel safe on the road, some road rage issues can lead to crashes. Sylvia Gomez from Alton, Texas who drives in McAllen feels the roads are safe but believes road rage is a serious issue.

“I don’t know if they wake up on the wrong side of the bed but it is because everybody is in a hurry. I have experienced it where people are angry," Gomez said.

83-year-old Jorge Martinez also feels safe driving down the streets of McAllen. He reports any bad driving out of fear for pedestrians - especially, the elderly.

“I don’t usually judge people by the way they drive but if they are careless I report it because there are a lot of elderly people out there and that is my concern," Martinez said.

Over 600 people were surveyed to know what concerns them while driving. McAllen's traffic operations director Marlen Garza is overseeing the project.

“I know we have an intersection we've been looking at near the downtown area, where pedestrians are hit, not regularly, but enough to say what's going on in there," Garza said. "So once we know that we can go in there and say, you know what, we'll wait, what if we switch them to just cross at a certain location versus where they're crossing now.”

The city will then use the information to allocate funds for needed improvements. The results of the survey will be available in July.

Garza says people can expect changes sometime after August once the city reviews what areas to target.

Funding for the project comes from a grant from the U.S. Department of Transportation that provided the City of McAllen with $120,000.

Another close to $8,000 was provided in state grants and the rest of the $170,000 for the hiring of the consultant was paid by the City of McAllen.