Bike lanes and speed control cut from US safety list
Cycle lanes, speed cameras and variable speed limits have been removed from the US Federal Highway Administration’s (FHWA) ‘Proven Safety Countermeasures’ list, a road safety advisory provided by the Department of Transportation agency.
The edit comes a few days after US Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy announced a US $1.7 billion budget shift away from what he described as “DEI bike lanes and climate change…” in favour of highway and bridge maintenance.
On taking office in 2025 the Trump Administration froze more than 3,000 transportation grants awarded in the Biden era, when equity and climate action had been the watchwords. Around half of these projects have subsequently been approved with modifications. Analysis by the League of American Bicyclists estimates that while around a third of the latest 127 approved grants do include design elements for cycling and pedestrians, there have been significant reductions overall in funding for safe streets components compared with the action envisaged by the Biden Administration.
Transportation organisations in the US warn of a chilling effect as potential grant recipients avoid applying for out-of-favour project components. While equity and climate are ideologically off-limits, safety has been a stated continued priority for the Department of Transportation. The FHWA has recognised that cycling facilities “…can mitigate or prevent interactions, conflicts, and crashes between bicyclists and motor vehicles, and create a network of safer roadways for bicycling." A banner statement on the FHWA website reads: “Zero is our goal. A Safe System is how we get there”.
The question is whether the removal of key safety advice from FHWA's countermeasures list is culture war semantics or a real shift away from Safe System objectives. If the ‘War on Woke’ results in fewer safety upgrades for cyclists and pedestrians, the result could be the same – yet more Americans killed and seriously injured in preventable collisions.
Photo by Mauro Gigli on Unsplash