Pedestrian fatalities have seen a 75 percent spike since 2010. Communities need to take urgent action to slow cars, improve crossings, and create streets that prioritize safety over speed. Unfortunately, more and more are facing unnecessary barriers from state governments as they put questionable limits on the types of funding, street design changes, and other strategies that can be deployed to save lives. State legislatures need to think less about scoring political points and instead think how they can support local efforts to create safer streets.
Communities across the U.S. are facing a pedestrian safety crisis. Streets designed to move vehicles as fast and conveniently as possible have created environments where those walking, biking, or taking transit are increasingly at risk as they try to get to work, school, and other everyday destinations. Many of these communities are already taking steps to address this by doing everything they can to slow down cars, improve visibility, and create safe ways for people to get to where they need and want to go. They are hard at work—with limited resources—to fight against decades of design and decision-making in order to create a transportation system that works for everyone. Increasingly, their job is being made harder by state policies attempting to limit the tools and strategies at their disposal.
There are a number of ways that states can stand in the way of progress at the local level. Smart Growth America regularly points out the disproportionate number of pedestrian fatalities that occur on state-owned roads and the need to find better ways to work with state DOTs. States also control and are responsible for dispersing a large percentage of the funds available for transportation projects.
What is state preemption?
Recently, a number of states have gone further by enacting policies that prohibit or limit local jurisdictions in using proven strategies to address traffic safety. This is called state preemption, where a state law or policy supersedes a local policy on the same topic and gives the state preference over an issue. This hamstrings communities in the strategies, policies, and interventions they can deploy around known challenges and can cause unnecessary conflict between local and state policymakers.
New York
New York state has often been at odds with New York city over best practices around transportation safety. In addition to the well-publicized fight over congestion pricing with the governor’s office in 2024, there have been challenges in being allowed to set and then enforce their own speed limits. Our partners at Families at Safe Streets took this fight all the way to Albany so that city staff and residents could implement the changes they knew needed to be done to address speed in some of the most at-risk areas in the city.
Texas
As Texas comes up on 25 years of consistent daily traffic fatalities, one would think the state would be trying every solution in the book. Instead, the state legislature is looking to make it harder for cities to install proven interventions like protected bike lanes and dedicated bus lanes. Not too surprising considering the state Republican Party specifically calls out road diets in its 2024 Platform and Legislative priorities. As communities tackle their own internal challenges from loss of strong leadership on the topic, the state paving the way to continue the status quo suggests the anniversaries of the last day without a fatality might continue past 2025.
Utah
While windshield bias is known to pop up in legislation, it is rare that it is so explicit as in a Utah bill that would prohibit “any other strategy that when implemented may increase congestion for motor vehicles or discourage motor vehicles from driving on a particular” street. In no clearer words could it be communicated to the state that people in cars are not only a priority, but the priority in the transportation system. This particular piece of legislation is believed to be aimed specifically at Salt Lake City but would have a chilling effect on any community looking to adopt and implement a Complete Streets approach.
At a time of chaos and uncertainty in the federal government, it is even more important that state legislatures provide leadership on issues like transportation. This means not creating unnecessary barriers for local champions who know what their communities need. And, if they continue to stand in the way of progress, community residents should remember these actions come the next election cycle to communicate to those in office their own priorities in transportation.