Use your voice and tell your representatives to prioritize safety in federal transportation policy

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Tell Congress to prioritize safety and end the pedestrian safety crisis

Despite thousands of preventable deaths each year, our streets are still dangerous by design. A staggering total of 39,254 people died on our roads in 2024, including 7,080 people struck and killed while walking. Each person left behind a family torn apart and a community forever traumatized. Each death was preventable.

While we’ve had a specific federal “safety” program since 1973, the current approach is best understood as spending one dollar on safety improvements while spending the next 50 dollars on other transportation infrastructure that makes the problem worse. Our policymakers' repeated failure to support proven street design countermeasures is why the U.S. faces a pedestrian fatality crisis not seen in any other peer country.

It’s time for Congress to reorient the federal transportation program toward safety. The next surface transportation reauthorization is an opportunity for lawmakers to stop the status quo and finally prioritize safety.

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Subject: Prioritize safety to end the pedestrian fatality crisis

Message:

Hello, It’s time to reorient the federal transportation program toward safety to prevent thousands of deaths. For too long, policy has prioritized the speed of cars over the safety of people using the roads. That choice has resulted in a preventable crisis in the federal transportation program that kills almost 40,000 people every year, including 7,080 people struck and killed while walking on our roads in 2024. To put it into context, that is a 72 percent increase in pedestrian fatalities over just 15 years that outpaces both the growth in population and the change in vehicle miles traveled. The crisis won’t end until those in power—including members of Congress—finally make safety for everyone who uses our roads the top priority. That means requiring road design standards that reflect best safety practices, providing the funding and resources to actually get projects with those standards into the ground, and implementing accountability measures to hold those who don’t comply accountable. Real progress on roadway safety will only come when proven street design countermeasures are implemented across all levels of government and jurisdictions through consequences for those who continue to ignore the need for safety and incentives for those who lead. Congress cannot stay complacent and allow thousands more people to be killed on our roads, especially when we already know how to make them safer. Members can take action during the upcoming surface transportation reauthorization through the following steps: 1. Directing the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) to require states and metropolitan planning organizations (MPOs) to set clear goals that progressively decrease roadway fatalities. The Highway Safety Improvement Program requires states to adopt performance goals for safety, but many states set fatality goals for increased roadway deaths—which is antithetical to the purpose of performance targets. 2. Require all grantees to improve roadway safety: All projects that receive federal funds should include accountability mechanisms that make safety a top priority. 3. Provide stronger support for evidence-backed guidance on safe roadway design: Update federal guidance on best practices to protect pedestrians, including making it easier to set context-sensitive speed limits and align posted speeds with design speeds. 4. Support better Complete Streets policies: Create new federal policy that gives Complete Streets planning, implementation, and evaluation power to localities—not to the U.S. Department of Transportation—to develop a program that localities can’t implement. 5. Give professionals the freedom to experiment: Communities know their transportation systems best. The federal government should give local leaders the flexibility and resources to develop safety projects best suited to their areas. Thank you for taking action on what really matters: making sure everyone can get home safely. Sincerely,

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Tell Congress to prioritize safety and end the pedestrian safety crisis

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