Smart Growth America

Hi, I’m Martha Roskowski of Further Strategies, and I'm excited to partner with Transportation for America on an effort to tackle dangerous design on our roads. Here's our story:

U.S. roads are dangerous. Roads designed for high speeds are killing people on foot, on bikes and in cars. We blame the victims for walking, biking and driving unsafely, but not the roadway design itself. It’s time to change that. We are launching this fundraiser to develop a legal strategy to push agencies to build safer roads.

State immunity laws make it difficult to hold agencies accountable for building dangerous roads. Transportation agencies fear legal liability if they deviate from the design manuals that enshrine designs that encourage speeding. This negative feedback loop means unsafe roads aren’t being fixed, even after people die on them.

Transportation for America is tackling this thorny issue. Our first step is research. Your contribution will help us bring on legal interns to catalogue state immunity laws, exceptions to those laws and examples of lawsuits that have been successful. Interns from engineering and design programs will identify roadways where people walking and biking have died to explore potential liability for those designs. We will publish a report with recommendations as a first step.

It’s crazy that we need to crowdfund an effort to make our roadways safer, but we live in interesting times. We know that advocates and families of traffic violence victims are frustrated and ready for change. This is a starting point. We hope this will be a way to balance the scales legally and support those within transportation agencies pushing for better, safer designs.

Donations go to Smart Growth America and are tax deductible. Any amount will help. We thank you for your support.

On June 9, Smart Growth America released Dangerous by Design 2026, the latest edition of our signature report on pedestrian fatalities in the United States. Dangerous by Design found that more than 7,000 people walking were killed on American roads in 2024 alone—up 72% in only 15 years.

Now, with your support, Smart Growth America and the National Complete Streets Coalition are launching the Dangerous by Design Accountability Initiative, a new effort to explore how our legal system may be preventing safer roadway design—and what can be done about it.

Our goal is to raise $50,000 by October 15, 2026, to fund the first phase of our efforts to identify barriers and opportunities for legal accountability related to dangerous roadway design.

We know what makes our roads dangerous

Since 2009, Dangerous by Design has documented how the way we build and design our transportation systems leads to increased death and injuries on our roadways. Roads designed for high speeds are killing people on foot, on bikes, and in cars. Yet when these tragedies occur, we often focus on individuals' behavior rather than on the design of the roads themselves.

We blame pedestrians for crossing in unsafe locations. We blame drivers for speeding. We blame cyclists for not being visible enough.

Far less attention is paid to the roadway designs that encourage dangerous behavior in the first place.

Wide lanes, long crossing distances, infrequent crosswalks, sweeping turns, and roadways built primarily to move vehicles as quickly as possible create conditions where serious crashes become more likely.

We know these designs are dangerous. Yet they continue to be built and maintained across the country.

Why are dangerous roads still being built?

One reason may lie in our legal system.

In many states, laws make it difficult to hold transportation agencies accountable when dangerous roadway designs contribute to crashes and fatalities. At the same time, agencies frequently rely on design manuals and standards that prioritize speed and vehicle throughput, creating a system where unsafe roads can remain unsafe even after people have been injured or killed.

We believe it is time to better understand the legal landscape—the incentives, barriers, and potential to create accountability—surrounding roadway design that may reveal new opportunities for change.

The Dangerous by Design Accountability Initiative

That is why Smart Growth America and the National Complete Streets Coalition are launching the Dangerous by Design Accountability Initiative.

This work is already underway. This summer, our research team has begun examining state immunity laws, legal exceptions, and roadway design cases across the country, and the early findings are promising.

What we've found so far suggests that legal accountability for dangerous roadway design varies dramatically from state to state. In some places, legal precedents have created pathways for challenging dangerous roadway conditions. In others, existing law makes holding states liable more tenuous. The result is a legal landscape that can be difficult to navigate and may contribute to misconceptions about the risks associated with safer roadway designs.

Early findings reinforce what many advocates already suspect: if we want safer roads, we need a better understanding of how our legal system encourages—or discourages—accountability for dangerous roadway design.

With your support, we will:

Timeline

June–October 2026

Fund and launch the initiative.

Summer–Fall 2026

Conduct legal and policy research, identify case studies, and share preliminary findings.

Fall–Winter 2026

Analyze findings and develop recommendations.

Spring 2027

Publish recommendations and convene advocates and experts to discuss next steps.

For years, Dangerous by Design has documented the problem and offered solutions. The lack of action has led to this initiative—to explore new ways to create change.

Donations support Smart Growth America and are tax-deductible to the extent allowed by law. Every contribution helps move this work forward.

Thank you for your support.