By Charles Pekow — The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) updated its minimum performance standards that states must implement to reduce bicycle fatalities. Since 2014, states have been required to develop highway safety plans that include bicycle safety. State highway safety offices must develop three-year plans. The plans must assess current safety levels and develop goals to improve.
States get considerable leeway in developing performance measures, depending on the problems they identify. States with large metro areas, for instance, may be more concerned with bicyclist safety than more rural states.
From now on, state plans must include “strategic core performance measures” that can include reducing the “number of bicyclist and other cyclist fatalities.” NHTSA encourages specific goals (a state could aim not just to cut bicyclist fatalities but to develop measures to reduce deaths among cyclists of a specific age group, for instance).
States must submit their plans by July 2026 to cover years 2027, 2028 and 2029.
Details at Federal Register, Volume 90 Issue 3 (Monday, January 6, 2025). https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/FR-2025-01-06/html/2024-31487.htm
