Highway Safety Bill Opens Door for 100% Federal Funding for New Bike Paths and Crosswalks

This new legislation, officially called the Sarah Debbink Langenkamp Active Transportation Safety Act, is essentially a turbocharger for bike lanes and safer crosswalks. It updates the federal Highway Safety Improvement Program (HSIP) to make it significantly easier and cheaper for states and cities to fund projects that protect cyclists and pedestrians. Specifically, it expands the definition of a safety project to explicitly include connecting existing bike or pedestrian paths and any strategy designed to lower safety risks for vulnerable road users, opening the door for these projects to access major federal dollars.

The 100% Federal Match: No Local Skin in the Game?

Here’s where it gets interesting for local budgets: normally, states have to put up some of their own money (a local match) to get federal highway funding. This Act creates a major exception, allowing certain bike and pedestrian safety projects to be funded 100% by the federal government under specific conditions (Sec. 2). This is huge. For a city that might have a great plan for a safe route to school but is struggling to find the local cash, this provision could mean the difference between that project getting built next year or sitting on a shelf for a decade. It means more protected lanes and safer crossings could materialize much faster in your neighborhood.

Putting Safety Funds to Work as Local Cash

The bill also introduces some serious flexibility into the financing rules. States can now calculate the required local match across an entire program or group of projects, rather than needing local money for every single small job. Even better, it allows states to use existing Highway Safety Improvement Program (HSIP) funds as the local matching money for other safety projects (Sec. 2). Think of it like this: HSIP funds are usually reserved for specific safety interventions, but now they can act as the local contribution for a broader project, provided that project uses a “Proven Safety Countermeasure” for bikers or walkers, like a protected intersection design or a raised crosswalk. This smart accounting trick could unlock millions for safety upgrades that were previously stalled due to lack of local funding.

What This Means for Your Commute

If you’re a cyclist or pedestrian, this bill is designed to directly benefit you by funneling more resources toward completing safe networks. If you live in a city with a great bike path that just ends abruptly, the provision explicitly funding the connection of two or more existing paths is aimed squarely at fixing that gap. For everyone else, the focus on “Proven Safety Countermeasures” means that the money is supposed to be spent on changes that actually work to reduce crashes, like better lighting, dedicated turn lanes for bikes, or pedestrian refuge islands. The Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) will have to define exactly what counts as a “Proven Safety Countermeasure,” and how broad that definition is will determine the bill’s true impact. However, the clear prioritization of these measures means safety for active commuters is finally getting the high-level funding recognition it deserves.