The 2021 Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (IIJA) provided states and metro areas with historic levels of federal transportation funding. The IIJA was paired with promises of improved safety, lower emissions, improved condition of roads and bridges, and better access to jobs and opportunity, just to name a few. How will taxpayers assess progress on these indicators? One answer is found in something that happened nearly a decade before the IIJA passed. The 2012 federal transportation law (MAP-21) created a modest new system of performance measures for assessing progress. One of the required measures was for safety overall, which included a separate measure specifically for the safety of people walking and biking.

13 total states set targets for more people to be killed or seriously injured while walking (and biking) in 2024 than were killed or injured in 2022. That list includes seven of the top 20 most deadly states in this report—Alabama, Arkansas, Georgia, Hawaii, New Jersey, Oklahoma, and Tennessee. 36 other states set targets in 2024 to reduce the number of roadway deaths and injuries from their 2022 numbers. 35 states in total are setting targets that are higher than their roadway fatalities and injury totals for 2010. (Note: Florida has set a target of zero deaths every year, while the number of non-motorized deaths and injuries have dipped below 3,200 just once since this performance tracking program began in 2020. They are the only state to do so.)