Sponsors (11)
Introduced June 4, 2025 by Stephen Cohen · Last progress June 4, 2025
The bill trades increased federal standards, funding, and protections to make streets safer and more accessible—especially for disadvantaged and disabled people—against higher costs, added administrative burdens, reduced local flexibility, and uneven coverage that may leave some communities or projects without improvements.
Pedestrians, bicyclists, transit riders, commuters, drivers, and people with disabilities will experience safer streets because projects will require protected bike lanes, ADA-compliant sidewalks/crosswalks, improved lighting/signals, and safety-prioritized designs.
Urban and rural communities will gain expanded multimodal travel options as federal planning and project requirements promote accommodation of walking, biking, and transit in road design and operation.
Low-income communities, communities of color, Tribal communities, and rural areas will be prioritized for technical assistance and grant funding to advance equitable multimodal access and safety improvements.
State governments, MPOs, local governments, and taxpayers will face higher planning, reporting, benchmarking, and construction costs because of new multimodal design standards, benchmarking and reporting requirements, and retrofits.
State governments and taxpayers will have less flexible highway budgets because a portion of certain apportioned federal highway funds (5%) must be obligated to complete-streets activities, reducing funds for other state priorities.
Local jurisdictions and eligible entities that cannot meet Secretary/State/MPO certification or federal requirements may be blocked from federal grants or have reduced flexibility to pursue locally preferred designs.
Based on analysis of 4 sections of legislative text.
Creates a federal complete streets program requiring states to adopt design standards, offer grants, and phase in multimodal, accessible street requirements for covered Federal‑aid projects.
Creates a federal "complete streets" program that requires States to set up competitive grant and technical‑assistance programs to plan, design, and build multimodal street projects (protected bike lanes, sidewalks, crosswalks, lighting, signals, and accessible features). The Department of Transportation must issue design standards quickly, publish guidance and benchmarks, and States must phase in compliance deadlines for covered Federal‑aid projects, with specified exemptions and an appeals process for metropolitan planning organizations. The law emphasizes safety, multimodal access, and equitable service to underserved communities, ties grant eligibility to locally adopted complete‑streets policies and prioritization plans, and requires States and FHWA to publish inventories and cost guidance on implementation elements.