America is in the middle of a roadway safety crisis. Every day, more than 100 people are killed on our roads, and thousands more suffer life-altering injuries. Last year alone, more than 37,000 people died in traffic crashes. Behind every statistic is a family whose life was forever changed because someone never made it home.
This is not the moment to retreat from solutions that save lives.
Yet that is exactly what appears to be happening. In recent weeks, the Trump Administration’s Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) quietly removed bike lanes and speed safety cameras from a webpage listing “countermeasures and strategies” proven to reduce roadway deaths and injuries. The change did not come with a public announcement or any evidence suggesting these interventions had suddenly become ineffective. The science did not change. The data did not change. Only the politics seem to have changed.
Thankfully, the highest ranking Democrat on the House Transportation Committee, Congressman Rick Larsen, is demanding answers and accountability.
As Larsen put it, “Attacking proven safety measures makes no sense in the middle of a roadway safety epidemic that killed more than 36,000 Americans last year.”
That should not be a controversial statement. It should be the starting point for every transportation policy discussion in America.
Protected bike lanes create physical separation between people riding bicycles and motor vehicles, reducing conflicts and encouraging safer travel for everyone. They often calm traffic, making streets safer for pedestrians as well.
Speed safety cameras work because they address one of the most dangerous factors in any crash: excessive speed. Communities that have implemented speed camera programs have repeatedly demonstrated reductions in dangerous speeding, crashes, and fatalities.
In Snohomish County, traffic crashes increased 30 percent since 2020 to 12,458 in 2025. Although people biking and walking are involved with just 2.5 percent of these crashes, they represent 35 percent of the traffic fatalities and serious injuries.
Through our work with older adults, immigrant families, people with disabilities, and first-time transit users across Snohomish County, the Snohomish County Transportation Coalition (Snotrac) sees every day how transportation safety affects people’s confidence and independence. Safe streets are not only about preventing crashes. Safe streets help people access jobs, healthcare, education, and community with greater confidence, whether they walk, bike, ride transit, or drive.
That’s why efforts by our local jurisdictions are so important. Right now, Snohomish County Public Works is finalizing its Road Safety Action Plan. The City of Everett completed its Vision Zero Plan last year and is now working on a Speed Management Plan. In the last few years, the cities of Everett, Edmonds, and Mukilteo have deployed new speed cameras near schools and other high risk corridors, greatly reducing speeding and increasing safety. These are necessary efforts to make our roads safer.
These aren’t ideological ideas. They are evidence-based public safety tools. Transportation policy should follow evidence, not political fashion. We should be deploying successful safety strategies more widely—not removing them from federal guidance.
And Congressman Larsen is right, words on a federal website matter.
State departments of transportation, local governments, planners, engineers, and grant applicants all look to FHWA resources for technical guidance and best practices. When proven countermeasures disappear from official federal materials, it sends a troubling signal that evidence may be taking a back seat to ideology.
If bike lanes reduce crashes, they belong in federal guidance. If speed safety cameras reduce fatalities, they belong in federal guidance. And if politics is pushing proven safety measures aside while tens of thousands of Americans continue to die on our roads each year, Congress has every reason to ask why.
We appreciate Congressman Larsen’s willingness to ask important questions about evidence-based transportation safety. Communities benefit when transportation policy is guided by data and proven practices.
Authored by Suleiny Altamirano, the Public Affairs & Mobility Navigation Program Manager for the Snohomish County Transportation Coalition (Snotrac), and Ann Sullivan of the National Campaign for Transit Justice.
Author: Lynnwood Times Contributor
