A push from a Wisconsin family to keep bicyclists safe is making its way to the legislature.
The Debbink-Langenkamp family has been advocating for more federal dollars to fund bike safety improvements after their loved one was killed riding her bike in 2022.
Now a bill in her honor is hoping to make roads safer.
Oconomowoc native, Sarah Debbink Langenkamp, was many things. A mother, a daughter, a U.S. Diplomat, and an avid bike rider.
In August of 2022, Langenkamp had just returned to the United States after a tour in Ukraine. She was riding her bike home in Maryland when a truck drove into the bike lane and killed her.
TMJ4 was there in May when Sarah's father, Dirk Debbink, spoke to the Oconomowoc Common Council about a need for more funding to protect bicyclists on the road.
"We've come to accept, like you probably have too, that the grieving process will never end," said Debbink. "Painted white lines on a street that are considered bike lanes are actually death traps. It's just a white line on a pavement that a truck can drive right across and crush you as they did for Sarah.”
The family has been advocating tirelessly since then to support more safety infrastructure. Their calls for action are now making movement in the nation’s capitol.
On Tuesday, Wisconsin Senator Tammy Baldwin introduced the Sarah Debbink Langenkamp Transportation Safety Act.
The bill would allow more funding under the nation's bipartisan infrastructure bill to be used for bike and pedestrian safety by opening up 100% of federal funding to local governments aiming for biking and pedestrian-friendly infrastructure.
The Sarah Debbink Langenkamp Active Safety Transportation Act:
- Gives states flexibility to fund bicycle and walking safety projects with 100% federal funds, including for locally identified safety priorities.
- Makes it easier for states and local governments to fund the safety projects identified in Bipartisan Infrastructure Law-funded Safe Streets for All planning grants.
- Allows biking and walking network projects eligible for funding under the Highway Safety Improvement Program (HSIP).
Finn says, that right now, Wisconsin does not trigger the “vulnerable user threshold” to be able to use 100% federal funding for highway safety dollars.
That means, since less than 15 percent of bike riders and pedestrians are killed in the state, local governments must pay 20 percent of any infrastructure improvement that relates to riding or walking.
Sarah’s namesake bill would allow communities to request one hundred percent of that funding to come from the state’s allotted Highway Safety Dollars, rather than just 80 percent.
“Communities that can’t come up with that money aren’t seeing those same kind of safety improvements,” Finn explained.
Finn says that would open up a whole new array of infrastructure opportunities, particularly for smaller towns that can’t foot 20 percent of the bill.
“In small communities, for example, they’re just looking to build sidewalks to get kids from a housing subdivision to their school. Now, those kids need to cross a 50-mph highway with no sidewalk,” said Finn. “So, this is the kind of money that would allow those kinds of improvements.”
Kirsten Finn with the Wisconsin Bike Federation was in D.C. advocating for that very bill last week.
“This is the kind of money that would allow all kinds of improvements,” said Finn.
The Federation has joined the Debbink-Langenkamp families in fighting for more support for bike riders, hosting a 'Ride for Your Life' event in Sarah's honor this past fall in Madison.
“The whole family is so passionate about bicycle and pedestrian safety, so well-spoken, so determined to get this law passed,” Finn told TMJ4.
Finn says if passed, the bill could make the difference in preventing another senseless tragedy like Sarah’s.
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