Texas Is Removing Rainbow Crosswalks That Are Statistically Safer Than the Ones Replacing Them

The safety argument falls apart in one sentence

A Bloomberg Philanthropies study of 17 asphalt art sites found a 49.6% reduction in crashes involving pedestrians at colored crosswalks. Drivers were 27% more likely to yield to pedestrians. Injuries dropped 36.5%.

Seattle’s transportation department called its rainbow crosswalks’ safety record “phenomenal”. Collisions at those intersections dropped to nearly zero.

Texas is ordering cities to remove them anyway.

What is being erased

Governor Abbott directed TxDOT in October 2025 to enforce removal of any roadway markings that don’t direct traffic. Cities that refuse lose state and federal transportation funding. Austin’s deadline is June 22, 2026.

What Texas is ordering removed

Installation	Location	What it represents	Installed
Rainbow Pride crosswalks	Austin, 4th & Colorado	LGBTQ+ community, installed on National Coming Out Day	Oct 2021
”Black Artists Matter” mural	Austin, East 11th Street	Black artists and history, $55K project with 70 volunteers	June 2020
Burnt orange “TEXAS”	Austin, near UT campus	University of Texas	Years
Cedar Springs Road crosswalk	Dallas, Oak Lawn	Historic LGBTQ+ district	Years
Montrose Pride crosswalk	Houston	LGBTQ+ community, removed days after repaving	2023
Guadalupe River crosswalks	Kerrville	Blue/teal nature art of the river and night sky	Recent

Kerrville’s crosswalks are blue and teal. They depict a river and stars. They have nothing to do with politics or Pride. They are being removed too.

That is the detail that makes the “safety” and “political messaging” arguments collapse at the same time.

Austin’s June 22 deadline is now less than three weeks away. Once the crosswalks are ground off the pavement, no city council vote or future governor can put them back. The federal funding agreements that replace them will prohibit reinstallation.

The funding threat

TxDOT threatened to withhold state and federal transportation funds and jeopardize a $25 million Lady Bird Lake boardwalk project. San Antonio has $2.3 million in grants at stake. Dallas was ordered to remove 30 decorative crosswalks.

“We’re going to comply with the law.”

That is Austin Mayor Kirk Watson’s response. No legal challenge. No coalition with other cities. Compliance.

Watson’s office has not disclosed whether the city attorney reviewed TxDOT’s legal authority to condition unrelated project funding on crosswalk removal, a tactic courts have struck down in other preemption disputes.

The pipeline from state to federal

This is not just Texas. U.S. Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy launched the “SAFE ROADS Initiative” in July 2025, sending letters to all 50 governors. The FHWA terminated its own Austin study on crosswalk safety before it produced results.

Florida was first to comply. Orlando removed the Pulse Nightclub memorial crosswalk in July 2025. The crosswalk honored 49 people murdered in the 2016 mass shooting at a gay nightclub. It had been repainted every year since 2017 by the city and community volunteers.

The stated reason for removal was federal highway standards. The crosswalk was on a city street, not a federal highway.

The FHWA’s own interpretation letter says non-retroreflective colored pavement within crosswalk lines is permitted as long as standard white lines are maintained. The government’s position contradicts the government’s own rules.

This connects to Texas HB 2127 (the Death Star preemption law) and Florida HB 1001 (the anti-diversity law). Each builds on the last. The crosswalks are the most visible target because they are literally painted on the ground where everyone walks.

What you can do

Call Austin City Council before the June 22 deadline. The council has not held a single public hearing on compliance. Ask whether they will schedule one before June 22, and whether the city attorney examined whether TxDOT’s directive exceeds its statutory authority. Find your council member.
Contact TxDOT. Ask them to cite the specific safety data supporting removal of Kerrville’s nature crosswalks. TxDOT contact page.
Write your state legislators. Ask whether they support using transportation funding as a weapon against public art. Use Resist Bot (text RESIST to 50409).
Share the safety data. The Bloomberg study showing a 49.6% pedestrian crash reduction is the single strongest counterargument. Link to the study.
Document what’s being lost. Photograph the crosswalks and murals before they’re removed. The “Black Artists Matter” mural on East 11th Street was painted by 70 volunteers. That history should not disappear without a record.