Another Year of Devastating and Preventable Bicyclist Deaths

On April 8th, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) issued a press release announcing its early estimates of overall traffic fatalities for 2024, projecting that 39,345 people died in traffic crashes last year. This is a continued decrease since 2021 and the announcement largely focused on that positive story with a brief mention that “America’s traffic fatality rate remains high relative to many peer nations.”

Those overall numbers do not tell the full story. In the United States – according to new 2023 data hyperlinked but not discussed in this press release – cyclist deaths increased from a record 1,105 in 2022 (revised up to 1,117 in the latest data) to a new record of 1,166 in 2024, an increase of 4.4% or 5.5% depending upon which 2022 number you use. Since an all-time reported low of 623 bicyclist deaths in 2010, we’ve seen an 87% increase in bicyclist deaths with consecutive all-time records for the most deaths in the last two years of available data.

If you believe, as we do, that the only acceptable number of traffic deaths is zero, then we obviously have much work to do. If you also believe, as we do, that traffic deaths are preventable, then we know people’s lives can be saved with everyday changes to how our roads are designed, built, and marked for speed of motor vehicles, among other changes.

The League’s central focus is building a Bicycle Friendly America for everyone – where everyone can bike safely for transportation or recreation. That’s why we’re petitioning the federal government to lift pauses on Safe Streets and Roads for All (SS4A) grants and why we’re pushing eligible entities to apply for the next round of SS4A grants. And that’s why we’re advocating for the Sarah Debbink Langenkamp Active Transportation Safety Act, to make it easier for communities to use federal funding for safer streets. 

The Price We Pay for Unsafe Streets

A record number of people leaving their home, office, or a friend’s place were killed by a driver on their ride. Their families, friends, and communities bear real costs – estimated in billions and inestimable costs of lost love and companionship.

According to another NHTSA report, each cyclist death represents $10,495,944 in costs to society through medical expenses, lost wages and benefits, lost household work, lost quality of life, legal expenses, and insurance administration (to rub salt in the wound, this is the lowest cost per life for the four road user types accounted for in the report in Table 3-4).

That equates to an eye-popping $12.2 billion in societal costs from bicyclist deaths in 2023 (based on cost estimates from 2019, pre-Covid era inflation) or slightly less than the $13 billion in federal funds spent on bicycling AND walking infrastructure since 2010 (pedestrian deaths were down in 2023, but that still means 7,314 people were killed while walking, an increase of 70% since 2010 and accounting over $72 billion in societal costs).

Prevent Another Record Year: It’s Time to Take Action

As I wrote last year, we know that “more can be done to address bicyclist safety.” Separated bike lanes, slower speeds, and urgent action to improve vehicles for the safety of people outside them were needed then and continue to be needed now.

More than ever, we need public agencies that build our roads to take responsibility for building roads that are safe for people who bike. The responsible public agencies are primarily state highway agencies followed by city or municipal agencies. 

While our federal government owns few roads, they provide funding, design guidance, and environmental review for over 80 percent of the roads where bicyclists are killed. It is unacceptable to suggest that building safe places to bike is not the responsibility of a federal or state agency when those agencies are exercising control over the places where bicyclists are being killed.

The data also show that roads designated as part of the National Highway System — a subset of roads that are funded by federal transportation funding due to their importance to “the nation’s economy, defense, and mobility” — account for about 35 percent of bicyclist deaths and have seen their number of deaths increase at a rate three times the rate of increase on other roads in our nation.

It shouldn’t take record-setting numbers of lives lost for decision-makers to act — but it can be the catalyst for all of us to demand change.

Fortunately, one of the best funding sources for safer streets is back again this year — Safe Streets and Roads For All. Applications are open until 5PM EDT on June 26th, 2025. State agencies cannot apply, but they can be partners in applications with local communities that want to address deadly state-owned roads in their communities. 

You don’t have to be the one applying for a grant to help make change happen. Share this information with your local leaders, speak up at community meetings, and rally your neighbors. Let’s keep pushing our communities to take action for safer streets — because every life lost is one too many.