Republican activist urges bipartisan support for bike lanes after father's fatal accident
A Republican safety advocate argues that bike lanes and pedestrian infrastructure should be a nonpartisan issue, citing her father's death in South Carolina.
The author, a Republican street-safety advocate, lost her father when an SUV struck him on a dangerous stretch of road in Murrells Inlet, South Carolina. Her experience led her to a nine-month deep dive into transportation policy, where she found that Democrats and Republicans often pursue the same safety outcomes using different language. She argues that labeling bike lanes as a DEI project politicizes a neutral public-goods issue and that protected lanes improve retail sales, create jobs, and reduce pedestrian deaths, which cost billions annually.
Citing examples from New York and Seattle, she highlights the economic upside of multimodal infrastructure. The essay urges bipartisan cooperation and expert-driven planning to keep Americans safe on the road.
Why it matters
It shows how personal tragedy can bridge partisan divides on road safety and infrastructure policy.
In this story
