National action alert: Tell Congress Duffy’s attacks on bike lanes will get people killed

Bluesky post by Bike League Policy Director Ken McLeod.

Sean Duffy, the corrupt B-list reality TV personality cosplaying as Trump's Transportation Secretary, is trying to put language in the transportation reauthorization bill that would restrict bike lanes on the misleadingly-named National Highway System." This system includes a lot of regular city streets (map), including streets like Eastlake Ave where a federally-funded project is currently building new protected bike lanes. The system also includes many of Seattle's most dangerous streets, such as Rainier Ave S, Aurora Ave N, Fauntleroy Way SW, 4th Ave S and many more, streets big enough that Federal funding might be needed to help cover the significant cost to repave and rebuild them.

Regardless of anyone's opinion about bike lanes, everyone should be outraged at the overreach of the federal government's attempt to make decisions about local streets. Local governments should be in charge of decisions about their own streets, and local politicians should be the ones on the hook for those decisions rather than some bureaucrat in D.C.

The League of American Bicyclists has created a national action alert you can use to send letters to your senators and representative urging them to oppose any limitations to implementing bike lanes that save lives.

Bike lanes make streets significantly safer for all road users, and are among our most effective street safety tools. If we have any hope of achieving Vision Zero, we must address streets that are part of the National Highway System. Including these restrictions in the reauthorization bill will get Americans killed.