Texas Bill Would Ban Road Diets, Congestion Pricing

A proposed Texas state bill would prohibit cities from narrowing traffic lanes to build bike, pedestrian, or transit infrastructure and ban congestion pricing, reports Megan Kimble in the Houston Chronicle. “The bill, authored by state Sen. Paul Bettencourt, is meant to stop counties and cities from implementing ‘vehicle bans, street closures, or congestion pricing,’ according to his statement of intent.” According to Bettencourt, the bill is designed to prevent a “congestion fee out of the blue type discussion.”

For road safety advocates, the bill amounts to an attack on safe pedestrian spaces. “This wouldn't be the first time the state intervened to stop cities from implementing so-called road diets, which remove car lanes or parking spaces in targeted areas and replace them with wider sidewalks and bus and bike lanes.” In 2022, the Texas Transportation Commission stopped a bike lane project in San Antonio that had been approved by voters. Other current proposals by state legislators would kill funding for Dallas Area Rapid Transit and the Austin-area Project Connect.