House Bill 25-1303 aims to generate around $100 million over the next five years for road-safety projects to help vulnerable road users and Colorado wildlife avoid deadly car crashes by adding a small charge to car insurance policies issued in the state.
“People think of bicyclists inside of that first, but it's also pedestrians, folks who use wheelchairs or other mobility devices,” says state Representative Andrew Boesenecker, one of the bill’s sponsors. “This bill is really unique, because it also recognizes the danger of collisions with wildlife, as well. To be able to really tackle those two issues through a single funding source and have it be sustainable is pretty huge.”
If the bill passes, starting in July 2026, $3 would be charged annually for every car insured in Colorado; that money would be funneled into a crash prevention enterprise overseen by the state Department of Transportation. Vehicles over 26,000 pounds and motorcycles would be exempt.
The new funds would then be distributed to local governments for road-safety projects, although not all of those governments are on board.
According to bill proponents, 75 percent of public roads in Colorado are owned by local municipalities, but anyone driving in Colorado can use those roads and smaller communities may not have the tax base to fund road-safety projects. Plus, Colorado’s ambitious greenhouse gas reduction goals rely on people switching from cars to bikes or other more sustainable means of transportation, which people won't do if roads are unsafe.
“As a state, we need to meet our climate goals, and we need to meet our safety goals, and we need to meet our crash reduction goals and our wildlife corridor goals,” says state Senator Faith Winter, another of the bill’s sponsors. “The state can't do that by itself, and local governments can’t do it by themselves, so we have to be able to work together.”
Along with Winter and Boesenecker, Senator Dylan Roberts and Representative Meghan Lukens are the bill’s prime sponsors. All Democrats, the sponsors believe the bill will succeed in part because the legislation avoids appropriating from the general fund during a tight budget year.
According to the bill, 80 percent of the funds would go toward safety projects for vulnerable road users and 20 percent would go toward projects to reduce vehicle-wildlife collisions.
“This bill is essential, because dangerous roads impact every Coloradan,” Lukens says. “Everyone has a story about an incident or accident that could have had much worse outcomes or, unfortunately, resulted in disaster. …As a legislator who represents four counties on the Western Slope, my constituents and I know all too well how dangerous wildlife-vehicle collisions can be.”
Bill sponsors believe the fund could eventually decrease insurance premiums in Colorado because insurance companies would have to pay for fewer crashes, leading to less liability.
Several insurance companies have registered to amend the bill, while American Family Insurance, the Metro Denver Chamber of Commerce and a handful of local governments, including Douglas County, have registered in opposition, according to the Colorado Secretary of State's Office.
The Denver Metro Chamber of Commerce opposes the bill, citing increased fees and the cost of living in Colorado.
"This bill would only add to that burden. We support safer roads, but taxpayers already fund these efforts. Wildlife crossings and similar projects are part of CDOT’s core mission and long-term plan — and thanks to progress in this area, Colorado ranks 40th in the nation for wildlife collisions," part of a statement from chamber president and CEO J.J. Ament says. "This is another example of government raising costs while claiming to lower them — and Coloradans are the ones left paying the price."
Cyclist and Pedestrian Safety
According to the bill sponsors, pedestrian fatalities rose by 73 percent in Colorado in the last decade. In 2023, 156 bicyclists and pedestrians died in Colorado from crashes, CDOT data shows.“If you start talking to communities who have their transportation plans, more and more people want safe places to bike and walk,” says Peter Piccolo of Bicycle Colorado, another organization supporting the bill. “A bill like this helps to meet that demand.”
Piccolo hopes to capitalize on the success of Colorado's e-bike rebate program by creating infrastructure that makes riding bikes more safe and comfortable. “The good news is people are loving e-bikes,” he says. “The bad news is they're getting out there, some of them for the first time or the first time in a long time, and they're realizing that it's not as safe as it used to be when they were a kid.”
Winter suffered a brain injury when she was hit by a car on her bike around eighteen months ago. She says state initiatives to push greener transportation methods won't work if those methods aren’t safe.
“I'm one of the lucky ones, because I was okay and I've had a full recovery,” Winter says. “But we have talked to a lot of folks who have lost loved ones or did have more serious injuries, and a lot of people who aren't willing to use the roads because they're not seen as safe. How are we connecting our neighborhoods, our schools, our work centers, our health centers, in a way that creates the communities we want? Part of that is investing in the actual infrastructure.”
Previous efforts to pass similar legislation, most recently in 2022, were unsuccessful. Winter believes the sponsors have worked extensively enough with stakeholders to get the bill to the finish line this time around.
Wildlife Crossings in Colorado
Wildlife crossings have been hugely successful in reducing highway deaths in Colorado. In 2015, the state installed a series of wildlife crossings on State Highway 9 near Kremmling, and crashes between vehicles and wildlife dropped 92 percent since.“We have good, relevant data to show that there is a very significant increase to safety,” says Patrick Lane, senior manager of United States conservation for Pew Charitable Trusts, a nonprofit advocating for the bill’s passage.
Lane cites Summit County Safe Passages, a nonprofit that advocates for improved wildlife crossings on Interstate 70 from Copper Mountain to East Vail Pass, as evidence that communities will know how to use the funds if the bill passes.
Boesenecker and Lane say they were inspired to push for the bill this session in part by the tragedy of Victor Rodriguez, a Castle Rock-area man who died after a crash with an elk on Highway 85 last fall. Members of his family testified in support of the bill at the House Transportation Committee on April 1.
“Those residents, for a long time, have recognized there's a stretch of road where even some fencing could help,” Boesenecker says. “That's why people come to Colorado. They want to experience everything that we have to offer in terms of the great outdoors — and to be able to do that in a way where you can be safe in your vehicle, I think, is really important.”
Because highways in Colorado often divide important environments for animals, such as their summer and winter terrain, they need ways to navigate highways other than walking across them, according to Lane.
“It doesn't quite click to them that these roads are as hazardous as they are,” he says. “What does click is we've been following this migration pathway for generations and we're going to continue to do that.”
Car crashes kill more deer annually in the state than people are permitted to hunt, according to Colorado Parks and Wildlife. Overpasses, concrete culverts, underpasses, bridges and fencing can all help prevent those deaths, Lane says.
Along with tragedy prevention, there are economic incentives to build more wildlife crossings. The estimated annual cost of wildlife-vehicle collisions in Colorado is $313 million, the highest of any Western state, according to a 2023 study by the Center for Large Landscape Conservation.
Additionally, when roads must be closed because of crashes, economic losses ensue. According to CDOT, when the I-70 mountain corridor is closed for just one hour, the surrounding communities can lose up to $2 million.
The bill passed its final House reading on Monday, April 21, and has around two weeks to pass the state Senate before the 2025 legislative session ends on May 7.
