Two years ago, I thought bike lanes were a DEI project too. Two years ago, I also had a dad.
I’m a Republican, and in nine months of advocating for safer streets, I have yet to meet another one.
On Aug. 1, 2024, I signed my father’s DNR at 34 years old. I watched as he took his last breath, 5:10 p.m., after being struck by an SUV on a notoriously dangerous road in Murrells Inlet, South Carolina.
The road failed him. The road failed the elderly driver. The road failed both our families, and it continues to fail countless others.
In 2024, 7,080 pedestrians were struck and killed — the highest number on record since 1982, outside of the pandemic-era spike.
Roads don’t discriminate.
Yet somewhere along the way, we turned roads into a political argument. We argue over “DEI bike lanes.” We argue over “equity.” We argue over ideology.
But the asphalt does not care.
After nine months immersed in transportation policy, I’ve come to believe something simple: Republicans and Democrats are often arguing for the same thing using completely different languages.
How we frame the issue matters. The Left loses the Right as soon as bike lanes are tied into identity politics. Multimodal equity is simply “freedom of movement” to a Republican. But when Republicans talk about freedom, the progressives hear privilege. Aren’t the Left and the Right essentially saying the same thing?
Same lane. Different words. That’s the disconnect.
A bike lane is equity. It is freedom of movement. It is accessibility for someone who cannot drive. It is independence for a 12-year-old riding to school on their own — and an hour back in their mother’s day. It is law and order, using engineering to prevent tragedy instead of reacting to it after the fact. It is Make America Healthy Again — bringing Americans outside, safely. It is economic development.
Same infrastructure. Different language. Same goal.
And the proof is there.
The protected bike lane on 9th Avenue in New York increased retail sales 49%, compared with 3% elsewhere in Manhattan. In Seattle, a corridor with a protected bike lane saw a 31% jump in food service employment, versus 2.5% in control areas. Bike and pedestrian infrastructure projects also create more jobs per dollar spent than road projects built for cars alone, while costing substantially less.
In the first half of 2025 alone, 3,024 preventable pedestrian deaths cost $40 billion total. That is not a cost we as a country can afford to ignore.
This isn’t the first time the Left and Right have found common ground on street safety. Families for Safe Streets has championed bipartisan “Stop Super Speeders” bills and the use of intelligent speed assistance devices. The White House is exploring ISAs as well, per an April press release. We’ve done this before. We can do it again.
Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy is right that roads, bridges, and ports matter. But in a complete transportation system, road infrastructure includes bike lanes, sidewalks, and crosswalks, too. It is one system, not a set of competing priorities.
As a Republican turning grief into change, I can confidently say the Left and the Right want the same thing. We just haven’t been talking to each other — we’ve been talking past each other.
THE $70 BILLION ‘CHILD SAFETY’ BILL THAT LEAVES KIDS EXPOSED AND KILLS SMALL TECH
My father won’t get his last breath back. But the next family might get to keep theirs, if we finally start letting the experts guide the conversation without politicizing the issue.
We don’t have to agree on every reason for building safer streets. We only have to agree that Americans deserve to make it home alive.
Chrissy Oakes is a street safety advocate, writer, and a member of Families for Safe Streets. She founded Safer17, after her father was struck and killed in South Carolina while walking, and she has been quoted on pedestrian safety by Fast Company (via Next City), The Post and Courier, and Fox 5 New York.