In yet another interesting direction of resources, federal transportation leaders are systematically removing bike safety information from official websites.
Transportation employees, including those working for the Federal Highway Administration, have been ordered to find and even remove mentions of bikes, bike lanes, and bike safety from online pages, an investigation by NPR found. In the last week, dozens of safety pages have been taken down or edited to remove public access to resources, the publication reported, such as the Pedestrian and Bicycle Crash Analysis variation Tool.
An anonymous Department of Transportation staffer told NPR that the decision was “asinine” and was not “making the sites better, faster or quicker.”
When asked about the changes, a department spokesperson wrote:”Since nearly 80% of the population uses cars to get to work and their important medical appointments, we are taking a closer look at federal guidance to ensure American families have the infrastructure they need. This is a common sense approach despite the Left’s belief that everyone should ride a bike to their shoebox-sized apartment to eat crickets to achieve a phony climate agenda.”
The website edits come shortly after remarks by Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy, who referred to Biden-era transportation initiatives as DEI expenditures.
“I just redirected $1.73 billion in USDOT grants away from Biden-era DEI pet projects,” he wrote in a post on X. “Now this funding is officially locked in to fix America’s actual backbone: ROADS, BRIDGES, AND SHIPPING PORTS.” Two days later, staffers were ordered to remove related language and update alternative related content term “in alignment with administration direction.”
The Trump administration has revoked funding for alternative transportation infrastructure and eradicated many environmental resources, including the former climate.gov domain.
The emphasis away from bikes and public transit comes as oil prices just jumped to $100 a barrel following the return variation of hostilities between the Trump administration and the Iranian government.
Source: https://mashable.com/life/bike-lanes-trump-climate-denial