Action Alert: Support Rep. Larsen in fighting Trump’s mindless attack on bike lanes

Though one cannot expect a policy out of the Trump Administration to be based in reality, it is still important to push against their firehose of awful ideas. The corrupt former mid-level reality TV personality cosplaying as Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy recently posted that USDOT would be directing funding away from DEI bike lanes," whatever that means. This was followed two days later by an order to scrub information about the safety benefits of proven interventions like bike lanes and speed cameras from the USDOT website.

U.S. Representative Rick Larsen (WA-2), the ranking Democrat on the House Transportation Committee, has requested an official briefing from USDOT about the decision, noting, It's not political to say bike lanes and speed cameras improve safety; it's a statement of fact." You can send a letter supporting bike lanes and Larsen's request through a nationwide action alert from League of American Bicyclists.

The whole DEI bike lanes" thing is so asinine, it's not clear how to even respond. It's clearly the mindless rantings of an administration that has no contact with reality and does not care that they have no idea what they are talking about. It feels more like the result of a MAGA Mad Libs than an actual transportation policy. It's all lies, in line with the Trump Administration's governing philosophy of making shit up to either enrich themselves or justify making Americans' lives worse (or both). Yet they are in charge somehow, so we can't just ignore them.

Bike lanes make streets significantly safer for all road users, including people in cars (2023 USDOT PDF). Dying in a car wreck is not a conservative value, though it seems to be a Republican Party value. Lots of Republicans ride bikes, including the majority of all children regardless of ethnicity or how their parents vote. Even if you are a frothing-at-the-mouth MAGA drone who has allowed right wing rage bait media to control your emotions who is so heartless that you think it is fine when Democrats die while biking, surely you can agree that it's bad when children are killed while biking. Right? RIGHT?!?