The Federal Highway Administration removed bike lanes, speed safety cameras, and variable speed limits from its Proven Safety Countermeasures list, reducing the program from 28 recommended strategies to 23, NPR reported on July 16, 2026. Two additional unnamed recommendations were also cut.

The FHWA published the updated list at highways.dot.gov/safety/proven-safety-countermeasures. The agency has not publicly announced or explained the decision to remove the five strategies.

An FHWA spokesperson said the changes are part of a broader review to ensure alignment with current DOT policies and the administration's priorities, according to NPR.

Safety advocates first noticed the changes to the FHWA website in the days following a July 7, 2026, DOT announcement of more than $1.7 billion in discretionary grants. That grant round included no funding for bike lanes or pedestrian projects. By the weekend of July 11-12, the five strategies had been removed from the Proven Safety Countermeasures website.

The Proven Safety Countermeasures list was most recently expanded in 2021 under the Biden administration, growing to 28 recommended strategies. Stephanie Pollack, then acting FHWA administrator, oversaw that expansion.

Earlier in July 2026, Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy referred to bike lanes as "DEI bike lanes" in a post on X.

The removal of speed safety cameras eliminates a strategy the agency had previously promoted. According to the FHWA's Safety Compass newsletter published June 27, 2023, speed safety cameras have been shown to reduce crashes by 20 to 54 percent.

The Proven Safety Countermeasures program is intended to guide state and local transportation agencies toward evidence-based interventions for reducing roadway fatalities and serious injuries. Inclusion on the list signals to state DOTs and metropolitan planning organizations that a given strategy meets a federal threshold for documented effectiveness, which can influence project selection and funding decisions under programs such as the Highway Safety Improvement Program.

The decision to remove five strategies without a formal announcement or accompanying technical justification breaks from the process that attended the 2021 expansion, when the FHWA added countermeasures with published safety data and explanatory materials. The FHWA has not indicated whether the removed strategies failed to meet an updated evidentiary standard or were eliminated for other reasons.

The spokesperson's statement linking the changes to alignment with administration priorities comes amid a broader shift in DOT discretionary grant-making. The July 7 grant announcement directed more than $1.7 billion to projects that excluded bike lanes and pedestrian infrastructure entirely, a departure from the funding patterns seen under the prior administration's RAISE and Safe Streets and Roads for Justice programs.

Secretary Duffy's characterization of bike lanes as "DEI bike lanes" provides the clearest public signal of the policy framing behind the changes, though the FHWA itself has not used that terminology in its formal communications.

With the list now at 23 items, state and local agencies consulting the Proven Safety Countermeasures guidance will no longer find federal endorsement for dedicated bicycle infrastructure, automated speed enforcement, or variable speed limit systems. The remaining 23 strategies on the list have not been publicly identified as changed.