Delaware Passes First-Ever Anti-Stroad Law
After years of discussion and negotiations and 368 days after the legislation was first introduced in 2023, the 152nd Delaware General Assembly (Delaware’s state legislature) just passed the Everyone Gets Home Act, the State’s first-ever anti-“stroad” law.
The Journey to Law
Representative Ed Osienski of Newark first introduced HB 247 in June of 2023. Important business interests objected to several provisions of the bill in March of 2024, which ultimately resulted in significant changes. But the modified and revised Everyone Gets Home Act – now designated “House Substitute 1 for House Bill 247 with Senate Amendment 1” (a mouthful that gives a hint at how difficult and complicated the negotiations were) – ultimately won unanimous support from both the Delaware Senate (on June 25) and Delaware House (on June 26).
The Importance of the Everyone Gets Home Act: Highway Driveways
The Everyone Gets Home Act is the first-ever legislative effort to deal with Delaware’s stroads. If you live in Delaware and you went shopping this week, or had a dentist appointment, or dropped off your kids at school, or drove just about anywhere, there is a fairly high likelihood you had the regrettable experience of driving on one of our stroads (aka high-speed, usually suburban, highways with lots of driveways). Stroads evolved out of decades of piecemeal decisions by county and State officials responding to commercial development. Over those decades we’ve gotten used to them and we now mostly take them for granted but they are not convenient, pleasant, or safe. In fact, mile-for-mile, they are easily the deadliest parts of Delaware’s transportation system and where most of Delaware’s pedestrian fatalities happen.
The Everyone Gets Home Act clarifies DelDOT’s authority to acquire property rights in order to create new interconnections between commercial properties on stroads so that driveways can be consolidated and closed. It also – and this is a subtle but important point – protects property owners in case it’s ever the case that creating those interconnections causes any kind of problem for the property owner with a county government.
And Roadway Departures Too
Just the stroad piece of the Everyone Gets Home Act would arguably make it the most important traffic safety legislation ever adopted in Delaware. But the stroad provisions in the bill are also accompanied by additional language for addressing Delaware’s extremely serious problem of (mostly rural) single vehicle roadway departure crashes, which is one of the other major categories of fatal crashes in Delaware. The Act lays out clear authority for DelDOT to use a huge array of “Safe Systems” countermeasures – including roadway reconfigurations, narrowing travel lanes, edge line striping, raised medians, pinch points, chicanes, speed humps, speed tables, roundabouts, traffic circles, traffic diverters and signals modifications – in order to calm traffic on rural roads (to 35 mph or less) and reduce fatal roadway departure crashes.
Representative Osienski and Senator Hansen
Representative Osienski and Senator Hansen were the prime sponsors of the Everyone Gets Home Act in the Delaware House of Representatives and Delaware Senate, respectively. Without their tenacious support and credibility during the complicated negotiations with multiple stakeholders, House Substitute 1 for House Bill 247 with Senate Amendment 1 would not now be on its way to Governor Carney’s desk.
Moving Forward
Literally years in the making, we believe the Everyone Gets Home Act will help solve Delaware’s deepening road safety crisis (the state tied its all-time record for traffic fatalities in 2022) and (if aggressively implemented) enable the State to meet its ambitious traffic safety goal of reducing annual traffic fatalities to less than 60 by 2035. To achieve the 2035 goal, DelDOT will have to aggressively use its authority to make the system improvements that the Everyone Gets Home Act enables.
Stand with Us
As part of our ongoing Everyone Gets Home campaign, Bike Delaware advocates for ambitious safety improvements that benefit every Delawarean. If you are as unhappy with Delaware’s deadly, stressful and expensive transportation status quo as we are, we ask for your support of this ongoing advocacy. We have a track record of effectiveness and we can build on that to make big system changes that will save the lives of our families and friends … with your help.
47 Responses
Congratulations to Bike Delaware for publicizing the “stroad” issue and Rep. Osienski and Sen. Hansen for shepherding the legislation.
Lmfao biker cope
Guy you need to look up the word cope lmao. Biker won. You lost. Maga hatter cope.
Guy comes to a pro-cyclist website to post anti-cyclist sentiments at 9:07 A.M. on a Friday. Seems like he’s got a lot of free time in his day and makes substantive comments 🙄🤡
They should have done this in Atlanta, 40 years ago. Now, there is no budget to make changes.
Delaware could save a shit ton of money by simply banning New Jersey, Pennsylvania and New York drivers from being on our roads during the summer months.
Go home, the beach is closed!!
Just as long Delaware doesn’t have any sales tax there will out of State people driving out highways and roads. I am originally from Salem County, New Jersey I still go back for my church to Salem , NJ They have the same problem there except there isn’t much there as used to be.
Amen brother 🙏
More than 25 years ago, I travelled to VA and marveled how they designed commercial properties next to highways so that there were limited central access to the highway and segregated roads that led to the commercial/residential properties. I could never understand why they did not do that from 5 Points to Rehoboth. It was already too late for Kirkwood Highway. And I am afraid it is already too late for many roads in DE. Good law, but unless it can correct the existing nightmare roads, (which would have been at minimal cost to DE taxpayers) I am afraid this legislation is too late for many unsafe roads. Maybe it will enable my thoughts about connecting new development on Limestone Rd to existing access/traffic lights. Better late than never😁
The goal of the bill is definitely to try to retrofit those old roads like Kirkwood Highway (e.g. by interconnecting the commercial properties where possible). That’s not going to be free, of course, but it’s not an impossible program to imagine either in the context of the Delaware’s annual capital program for transportation improvements. Just a single grade separated intersection costs $50 to $150 million, for example. For the cost of single one of those grade separated intersections we could do an enormous amount of improvements on Kirkwood Highway…and save a lot of lives.
Cut cost down by using those in jail who want to work instead of sitting in a cell. Or reduce sentence as time served for work in lieu?
As a Maryland resident who enjoys the Delaware beaches very much, and often, as well as cycling in Delaware, I am very excited about the direction Bike Delaware has taken in dealing with this potential for deadly crashes.
Nothing is too cumbersome or unnecessary when it comes to disguised anti-business legislation sponsored by the Left. From the ultimate liberal boondoggle, roundabouts, to removing entrances off highways there is no end. Think how much money these idiotic ideas cost and how few actually benefit from them.
I wholeheartedly agree.
We really object to calling this legislation “anti-business.” It’s true that business interests objected to the original bill but months of negotiations addressed all the concerns that were raised. After that, the Everyone Gets Home Act was passed *unanimously* in both the Delaware Senate and the Delaware House of Representatives. In fact, not only is there is absolutely nothing in the bill that is “anti-business.,” the bill that was ultimately passed includes significant new protection in state law for commercial property owners impacted by any changes to highway access.
As a Bay Area Californian looking in from the outside, this is exciting! Hope to see the movement catch on, congrats to Ed, Stephanie, and everyone who helped.
I would appreciate learning which other orgs are pushing for this work on a national level
The bill sounds great. I’m all for more safety on the roads, and less congestion. A few years ago I visited St Petersburg, FL, and saw how they made roads safer for bicyclists and pedestrians. However, I am confused by the Stroad to Road diagram above. The Road part doesn’t indicate how cars will turn into the businesses & it shows far fewer cars than the Stroad side. I look forward to learning more.
Regarding the diagram, my understanding is that the bill will allow the government to build smaller, slower roads connecting adjacent businesses/parking lots, or perhaps even combine parking lots(?). This means there will still be entrances like in the first part of the diagram, but they will be fewer and farther between, which makes a massive difference in safety. You would then turn into a parking lot and take the new small slow roads in order to get to the adjacent areas, which means that people wouldn’t have to go onto the main stroad in order to get from one store to the store right next to it, which is how there are fewer cars driving in the second diagram. I haven’t read the bill so I may be wrong, and there’s definitely more nuance, but that’s how I would imagine it works.
You’ve got it!
Yeah I don’t get it either
After watching the video of stroads, as I never that term before, found it flawed. Pedestrian safety starts with the pedestrian. Most in the video are jay-walkers; some not 50 feet from the cross-walk, crossing against the light. Another huge problem in Delaware is driving in the shoulder. I’ve nearly been in a dozen accidents coming out of my neighborhood by drivers, on Rt4, using the shoulder as a road way. They zip through the turn-lane to the next intersect or driveway. This happens all the time, everywhere. Rt 896-Rt 71, in Middletown; Rt 72-Rt 4 in Newark, Rt 273- Rt 7 in Bear, long before reaching turn-lanes. Better Driver’s Education and traffic tickets/fines can go along way in improving driving safety.
The bill is an example of “Safe Systems” thinking. What does “Safe Systems” mean? One current example of “Safe Systems” infrastructure is the grade-separated intersection. Rather than station police at an intersection to give out tickets every day, a grade-separated intersection just removes the intersection conflicts altogether. Another example of “Safe Systems” infrastructure is the roundabout, which both (a) reduces the number of potential intersection conflicts from 32 to 8 and (b) reduces the potential crash kinetic energy of the remaining 8 conflicts. This anti-stroad bill is pursuing the same “Safe Systems” strategy: remove the high-speed highway driveway conflicts and re-route vehicle access to much slower side streets.
James:
We tried to get Sussex County and DelDOT to mandate cross access easement along Coastal Highway but the property rights zealots on county council felt that an access road or connections would limit the size of stores and reduce parking spaces. I like the concept but I don’t know how it is going to happen.
More government bureaucracy & wasted money making it harder to get around than it already is. How about enforcing traffic laws already on books. Delaware drivers use shoulders as driving lane, ignore red lights, speed 20-30+ miles above limit, tailgate. Bill is another boondoggle like the black fencing running down Route 13 for miles. Someone at DelDot thought spending millions on this fencing was important & someone in government was convinced to finance it.
That’s what Democrats do. It’s about power. Tax and spend. They aren’t happy unless they are making more rules and regulations.
We don’t want more government transportation bureaucracy or more money for transportation. What we want to do is *improve* the current transportation bureaucracy and get the money we are spending every year on transportation *spent more wisely*. Does that make sense?
A portion of Long Neck Rd is an example of too many pullouts. In the busiest area of this road, a one mile stretch, there are 35! Speed limit is 40mph. There’s one traffic light, but it’s at the beginning/end of the busiest part. There are accidents almost daily. People are pulling in/out from everywhere. You’re risking your life riding on this road especially in Summer, and it’s the only way in/out of this area.
After the last two bad accidents, in one day, a congressman requested DelDOT to finally studying the situation.
“There are accidents almost daily.”
It’s amazing that we’ve all just put up with for so many years…but at least now (for the first time) we’ve got really clear enabling language in state law to fix these “stroads.” But we definitely need to encourage DelDOT to ***use*** the clear authority that the Delaware General Assembly has given them.
Cut cost down by using those in jail who want to work instead of sitting in a cell. Or reduce sentence as time served for work in lieu?
I think we should not be stealing people’s property … I believe all this development and brand new buildings is out of control … take these older houses and buildings and recycle ♻️ into homes / offices … give more money to the law inforcements hire more cops start manning radar inforcements again …
Yes, the government can absolutely get a handle on this ridiculous amount of construction building. Stupid condos cookie cutter houses were whole neighborhoods. Go up in a month and “luxury“ apartments. This state is way too congested. They should make it easier for people to get loans to buy some of these houses that are just sitting abandoned.
For real. I’m in Georgetown and I’m pretty sure our highway has what their planning. It seems like almost every year someone is hit and killed crossing to and from the Georgetown motel. It’s right near Walmart. The problem is, exactly what you said, the pedestrians unfortunately. A lot of them wear dark clothing so you can’t see them. A lot of them are also under the influence which seems to be a state wide thing. I don’t think this is gonna help at all.
What gets me is our taxes are paying for it. From what ive heard and read 20% of a business or developers construction will be paid for with tax payer dollars. They just have to call it affordable housing and build within a municipality.
There also given a 10 year tax exemption on property, transportation and schools. The weight then falls on tax payers with more referendums and property taxes. The programs called Downtown Development incentives.
I don’t know if it’s true but I also heard a lot of the politicians are the developers.
Too late. There is an enormous sunk emissions cost to doing all of this and the planet is already on the tipping point of being inhabitable. You needed to advocate changes at the design level decades ago, to e.g. build shared use pathways to PROWAG (best practices) properly aligned with stroads, with equal LOS, esp at intersections and driveways. They build 5′ sidewalks with even narrower curb cuts and call that a “bikeway”. A 6′ sidewalk with 5′ acute curb ramps on SR72 is NOT a SUP. What we have in DE are a few off alignment facilities like the Markell and Castle Trails that everyone racks up and drives their bike to the trailhead. The coonectivity train you tout left the station and you and all your sister orgs like DE Greenways missed it. This bill, even if it does have teeth (doubtful) might start to be seen a few generations from now and we don’t even have a few years; the planet is on fire as we speak.
Don’t forget if they have to cut trees down. 1 tree stores up to 40 lbs. of carbon emissions a year. Trees provide shade to keep the surroundings cooler. When they tear them down all the carbon emissions that have been stored are released into the air. And the blacktop causes more heat.
Trees also prevent soil erosion and literally filter and purify the air. The tearing down Trees and laying down asphault has gotten out of control. Especially in Delaware. I wish more people understood once you put asphault on land or use it for developments, that land can never be used again to grow food or for farming.
We acknowledge that the best time to have passed this bill was 50 years ago but if you believe that progress is still possible, we think we have an obligation to try to solve this problem now and not just leave it to our kids to solve (when it will be even worse than it is now).
I have to search to find out what STROAD means.
Frickin hacks.
DelDot has long been stuck on stupid when it comes to road designing and planning. These overpaid so called Engineers seemed to have slept during class. Service roads have been needed for years which could have made our roads safer. How about the legislature holding DelDot accountable and stop this rubber-stamping of budgets? Why more regulations and stealing personal property to give to a Department that clearly lacks the ability to get the job done correctly in the first place? Oh and those so called Round abouts cause farmers and other large machine operators a huge problems because they are to darn small to go around. And, these have been installed in rural areas by the DelDot.
We admit that we are fans of roundabouts which (when designed correctly) can accommodate over-sized vehicles (without compromising traffic safety). But we’ll also say that our favorite roundabout application is for urban “gateway” locations (e.g. where you want to transition from higher speed roads to slower urban streets).
Another great idea that will be a path for money being siphoned off to a few design and construction firms that will overcharge the Government for diverting traffic and increasing road rage on our highways. Find another solution. Not an engineered thought in the least.
Delaware is moving forward and that’s something to be proud about! 🙂
Were moving backwards and its upsetting to see. Delaware education is ranked one of the lowest in the nation and our waterways were ranked the most polluted in the U.S.A. Our crime rate is higher than average with Wilmington ranking number one for the most sex offenders. Our options for local, non chemically grown food and produce is disappearing. We’re also second when it comes to substance abuse deaths and the homeless problem is out of control. All these statistics come from reliable sources on Google. Sorry for typing so much I just wish more awareness was brought to this.
Increases cost, shifts burdens, takes away property rights, frustrates drivers, more traffic and congestion.
Vote out these scumbags. They want you out of a personal vehicle and walking, with no regard to freezing weather, snow, rain, etc.
Crashes are the 2nd leading cause of death of kids both in the U.S. as a whole as well as in Delaware. Almost all of these deaths (in Delaware) are kids who are drivers or passengers in motor vehicles. We want our kids to stop dying in crashes. If that makes us scumbags, then so be it.
YaY Delaware!
Barrio – Ghetto Los Angeles needed this from the beginning. It’s a butt ugly city environment..
Too bad American cities aren’t like European cities! Having great city centers & less car centric suburban nasty sprawl like USA!
Yay for progress! It’s so refreshing to see democracy work and for communities to come together to make change happen!
It’s not just your state. The key is to get involved in every legislative process that matters to you. Find out how all of it works and is pieced (or not) together. Your government is supposed to work for you, so you have to make sure they are transparent. It takes some research on your part and signing up for emails to keep informed. Keep track of city council, Economic Development meetings, Zoning meetings, County Meetings and attend in person or online. See If DelDOT has that capability. TXDOT does. Its not as easy if you are young and have children, so partner with an “oldster” who can help research, attend, keep you up-to-date. Good Luck!