North Texas transportation leaders are scheduled to vote Thursday on a Regional Bicycle Safety Action Plan that sets a goal of eliminating serious-injury and fatal bicycle crashes across the region by 2050. The Regional Transportation Council, the policy board that steers federal transportation money in the Dallas-Fort Worth area, tabled the plan at its Sept. 11 meeting. It is back on the Oct. 8 agenda as an action item.
Right behind it on the same agenda is a vote to open a 2027 Transportation Alternatives call for projects. Staff expect about $60 million in federal money to be available for sidewalks, trails, bike lanes and Safe Routes to School plans in the region’s large urbanized areas. If the council approves, cities could start applying Oct. 12.
The two items work together. The safety plan maps where bicycle crashes cluster. The funding call is one way cities can pay to fix those places.
What the bicycle safety action plan says
The meeting packet describes the plan as a framework for reducing bicyclist crashes and deaths in the North Central Texas planning area. It joins a 2021 Pedestrian Safety Action Plan and a 2023 Roadway Safety Action Plan.
The packet gives the reason for it plainly. The council adopted a safety position in 2017 to eliminate serious injuries and deaths on all modes of travel, yet “in recent years the number of bicyclist serious injuries and fatalities has trended upward in North Central Texas, consistent with State and national trends.”
The plan has five goals:
- Eliminate all serious-injury and fatal bicyclist crashes across the region by 2050
- Address critical bicycle safety needs in priority locations
- Enhance safe connections to daily destinations
- Balance the safety and needs of all roadway users
- Develop a culture of safety
Staff ran outreach from February to November 2025, including a stakeholder work group, bike group meetings and a regional opinion survey. In that survey, 87% of respondents said they were interested in riding more than they do now, and 52% said safety concerns were the main reason they do not ride more often.
Where the crashes are
The plan’s most useful finding for residents is how concentrated the risk is. Staff identified priority bicycle safety areas, corridors and intersections in 37 cities. According to the draft:
- High-priority areas cover 2.6% of the region’s urbanized area but account for 21% of bicycle crashes, with 315 miles of planned bikeways
- Moderate-priority areas cover 9.0% of the urbanized area and 34% of crashes, with 810 miles of planned bikeways
- Together, they cover 11.6% of the urbanized area and 55% of crashes, with 1,125 miles of planned bikeways
Never Late News compared those shares. In the high-priority areas, crashes occur at about eight times the rate their land area alone would suggest. Across all priority areas, the rate is about 4.7 times.
That concentration is the argument for spending in specific places. A city does not have to rebuild every street to lower risk; it can start with the corridors and intersections where crashes keep happening.
The plan lists more than 30 action items, each with responsible parties and a rough cost. Examples in the packet include training designers on bicycle facility best practices, prioritizing enforcement of speed limits and impaired driving, road safety audits on priority corridors and intersections, and better lighting along bikeways, especially at intersections and driveways.
The regional technical committee that advises the council, the Surface Transportation Technical Committee, recommended adoption unanimously on Aug. 28.
What the $60 million trail call would pay for
The 2027 Transportation Alternatives call is limited to the three urbanized areas in the region with more than 200,000 people. Eligible work includes:
- Shared-use paths and trails
- On-street bikeways
- Sidewalks, crosswalks and curb ramps
- Sidewalks and bikeways to rail stations and frequent bus routes
- Pedestrian and bicycle safety countermeasures, including protected intersections
- Safe Routes to School planning
Construction awards are targeted at $3 million to $10 million in federal money per project. Safe Routes to School planning awards are targeted at $200,000 to $500,000.
By our math, $60 million would cover as few as six construction projects at the $10 million maximum, or as many as 20 at the $3 million minimum, before any planning grants.
Cities must put up money too. Construction requires at least a 20% local match, in cash or transportation development credits, and engineering and environmental work must be paid 100% locally. No in-kind contributions count. For a project drawing the full $10 million in federal money at an 80% share, the construction cost would be $12.5 million, leaving at least $2.5 million for the city, plus design costs.
Scoring for trail and bikeway projects gives 25 points for regional network connectivity, 20 each for access to major destinations, project readiness and safety and comfort, and 15 for congestion reduction. Safety and comfort is a scored category, which is where the safety plan’s crash map could help a city make its case.
The timeline for cities and school districts
If the council approves the call, the schedule in the packet runs:
- Oct. 12, 2026: call opens
- Oct. 27, 2026: public workshop
- Jan. 15, 2027, 5 p.m.: applications due
- January to March 2027: staff review and scoring
- April 2027: public meeting
- May 28, 2027: technical committee action on recommended projects
- June 10, 2027: council action on recommended projects
The packet also notes that a separate statewide TxDOT Transportation Alternatives call is expected to open in January 2027.
Why it matters for local budgets
Many North Texas cities are already asking voters to pay for street work. North Richland Hills has a $145.97 million bond to rebuild 50 streets, and Fort Worth’s $511.5 million streets bond is moving forward. Federal grants like this one can stretch that local money, but only for cities that can show a ready project and cover the match.
The council meets at 1 p.m. at the North Central Texas Council of Governments offices, 616 Six Flags Drive in Arlington. The bicycle plan is item 7 and the funding call is item 8. The full draft plan, with appendices, is posted at nctcog.org/bikesafety.
How Never Late News reported this
This report is based on these public records:
- Regional Transportation Council agenda packet for Oct. 8, 2026, including the agenda, Sept. 11 minutes, technical committee minutes, and staff presentations for items 7 and 8
- NCTCOG Regional Bicycle Safety Action Plan page, where the draft plan is posted for review
The crash concentration ratios, the six-to-20 project range and the local match example are Never Late News calculations from those records. No interviews were conducted for this report. To report an error, email editor@neverlatenews.com.