SB 1140: Roads Designed Only For Cars — 2025

Introduced by Senate Mark Harris (R-Soda Springs), Senate Bill 1140 is another attempt to restrict transportation spending for crosswalks, bike lanes, HOV (High Occupancy Vehicle) lanes, or other safety or efficiency features. The bill ignores the fact that pedestrian and cyclist injuries and deaths are higher than they’ve ever been in the Treasure Valley and across Idaho.

It’s similar to SB 1144. Both bills would limit the purpose of highway and bridge projects to primarily benefit motor vehicles in order to reduce traffic congestion, travel delays, engine idle time, and unproductive fuel consumption. It also requires improvement to traffic flow and travel times through expanding vehicle lanes, intersection efficiency, adding turn lanes, and improve transportation management systems.

Any investments for pedestrians or cyclists may be included only if they provide “a collateral or secondary benefit” to the project or to meet federal rules. This seems a little unclear….

Both SB1140 and SB1144 mirror several laws enacted in 2023, HB 87, HB 184, and HB 376, which all limited expenditure of transportation dollars for anything other than motor vehicles. It appears that they are simply adding the language into other sections of Idaho’s Transportation Code to ensure it applies to all road projects.

Why is the legislature trying to limit local control, and slash funding for safety improvements that benefit all road users? ICL encourages the legislature to empower transportation planners to find solutions that meet local needs, not to limit their ability to design safe and accessible infrastructure for all Idahoans.