# Vulnerable Road Users Safety Act

This bill focuses on making streets safer for people who are most vulnerable when traveling—pedestrians, cyclists, and motorcyclists. These groups have little protection if hit by a car, unlike people inside vehicles. The bill directs the federal government to study and address the dangers these road users face, with the goal of reducing injuries and deaths.

The legislation requires the Department of Transportation to examine what causes accidents involving pedestrians, cyclists, and motorcyclists, and to develop recommendations for how states and cities can make roads safer for these groups. This could include things like better street design, improved traffic enforcement, or public awareness campaigns. The bill also encourages states to adopt safety measures and may provide funding or technical assistance to help them do so.

If you walk, bike, or ride a motorcycle, this bill could eventually lead to changes in your community—like better-designed intersections, clearer road markings, or stricter enforcement against dangerous driving. Cities and states might invest in protected bike lanes, wider sidewalks, or traffic calming measures in busy areas. While the bill doesn't immediately change any laws or create new penalties, it's meant to lay the groundwork for long-term improvements that make streets safer for anyone not traveling in a car. The actual impact will depend on how seriously states and local governments take the recommendations that come from this federal study.

Vulnerable Road Users Safety Act

Schatz, Brian

Vulnerable Road Users Safety Act This bill addresses road safety, with a particular focus on the safety of vulnerable road users (e.g., pedestrians, bicyclists, and users of scooters and other micromobility vehicles.) The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration and the Federal Highway Administration must implement specified recommendations of the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) to improve safety for vulnerable road users. Additionally, if a state experiences an increase in the rate of fatalities and injuries of vulnerable road users, it must prioritize in its highway safety improvement program the implementation of NTSB pedestrian safety recommendations. The bill also requires the Intelligent Transportation System Joint Program Office of the Department of Transportation to incorporate bicyclists and other vulnerable road users into research concerning the safe deployment of connected vehicle systems (i.e., systems that use data from short-range communication broadcasts and exchanges with other vehicles to sense other vehicles and road users and identify potential hazards).