SAFE Streets Act

I 117TH CONGRESS 1ST SESSION H. R. 508 To amend title 23, United States Code, to include a special rule for the dedication of funds under the highway safety improvement program for certain vulnerable users, and for other purposes. IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES JANUARY 28, 2021 Ms. BROWNLEY (for herself and Mr. ESPAILLAT) introduced the following bill; which was referred to the Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure A BILL To amend title 23, United States Code, to include a special rule for the dedication of funds under the highway safety improvement program for certain vulnerable users, and for other purposes. Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa- 1 tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 2 SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 3 This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Safe And Friendly for 4 the Environment Streets Act’’ or the ‘‘SAFE Streets Act’’. 5 SEC. 2. HIGHWAY SAFETY IMPROVEMENT PROGRAM. 6 Section 148 of title 23, United States Code, is 7 amended— 8 VerDate Sep 11 2014 02:15 Feb 16, 2021 Jkt 019200 PO 00000 Frm 00001 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H508.IH H508 kjohnson on DSK79L0C42PROD with BILLS 2 •HR 508 IH (1) in subsection (a)— 1 (A) in paragraph (4)(B)(xiii) by inserting 2 ‘‘, including the development of a vulnerable 3 road user safety assessment under section 1601 4 of the SAFE Streets Act’’ after ‘‘safety plan- 5 ning’’; 6 (B) in paragraph (11)— 7 (i) by redesignating subparagraphs 8 (G) through (I) as subparagraphs (H) 9 through (J); and 10 (ii) by inserting after subparagraph 11 (F) the following: 12 ‘‘(G) includes a vulnerable road user safety 13 assessment described under paragraph (16);’’; 14 and 15 (C) by adding at the end the following: 16 ‘‘(13) VULNERABLE ROAD USER.—The term 17 ‘vulnerable road user’ means a nonmotorist— 18 ‘‘(A) with a fatality analysis reporting sys- 19 tem person attribute code that is included in 20 the definition of the term ‘number of non-mo- 21 torized fatalities’ in section 490.205 of title 23, 22 Code of Federal Regulations (or successor regu- 23 lation); or 24 VerDate Sep 11 2014 02:15 Feb 16, 2021 Jkt 019200 PO 00000 Frm 00002 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H508.IH H508 kjohnson on DSK79L0C42PROD with BILLS 3 •HR 508 IH ‘‘(B) described in the term ‘number of 1 non-motorized serious injuries’ in such section. 2 ‘‘(14) VULNERABLE ROAD USER SAFETY AS- 3 SESSMENT.—The term ‘vulnerable road user safety 4 assessment’ means an assessment of the safety per- 5 formance of the State or a metropolitan planning or- 6 ganization within the State with respect to vulner- 7 able road users and the plan of the State or metro- 8 politan planning organization to improve the safety 9 of vulnerable road users described in subsection 10 (l).’’; 11 (2) in subsection (c)— 12 (A) in paragraph (1) by striking ‘‘(a)(11)’’ 13 and inserting ‘‘(a)(13)’’; and 14 (B) in paragraph (2)(A)(vi) by inserting ‘‘, 15 consistent with the vulnerable road user safety 16 assessment’’ after ‘‘nonmotorized crashes’’; 17 (3) in subsection (d)(1)(B)— 18 (A) in clause (iv) by inserting ‘‘and serious 19 injury’’ after ‘‘fatality’’; 20 (B) in clause (vii) by striking ‘‘; and’’ and 21 inserting a semicolon; 22 (C) by redesignating clause (viii) as clause 23 (ix); and 24 VerDate Sep 11 2014 02:15 Feb 16, 2021 Jkt 019200 PO 00000 Frm 00003 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H508.IH H508 kjohnson on DSK79L0C42PROD with BILLS 4 •HR 508 IH (D) by inserting after clause (vii) the fol- 1 lowing: 2 ‘‘(viii) the findings of a vulnerable 3 road user safety assessment of the State; 4 and’’; 5 (4) in subsection (g) by adding at the end the 6 following: 7 ‘‘(3) VULNERABLE ROAD USER SAFETY.— 8 ‘‘(A) IN GENERAL.—Beginning on the date 9 of enactment of the SAFE Streets Act, if a 10 State determines that the number of vulnerable 11 road user fatalities and serious injuries per cap- 12 ita in such State over the most recent 2-year 13 period for which data are available exceeds the 14 median number of such fatalities and serious 15 injuries per capita among all States, that State 16 shall be required to obligate over the 2 fiscal 17 years following the fiscal year in which such de- 18 termination is made an amount that is not less 19 than 75 percent of the amount set aside in such 20 State under section 133(h)(1) for fiscal year 21 2020, less any amounts obligated by a metro- 22 politan planning organization in the State as 23 required by subparagraph (D), for— 24 ‘‘(i) in the first fiscal year— 25 VerDate Sep 11 2014 02:15 Feb 16, 2021 Jkt 019200 PO 00000 Frm 00004 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H508.IH H508 kjohnson on DSK79L0C42PROD with BILLS 5 •HR 508 IH ‘‘(I) performing the vulnerable 1 user safety assessment as prescribed 2 by subsection (l); 3 ‘‘(II) providing matching funds 4 for transportation alternatives safety 5 project as identified in section 6 133(h)(7)(B); and 7 ‘‘(III) projects eligible under sec- 8 tion 133(h)(3)(A), (B), (C), or (I); 9 and 10 ‘‘(ii) in each fiscal year thereafter, the 11 program of projects identified in subsection 12 (l)(2)(C). 13 ‘‘(B) SOURCE OF FUNDS.—Any amounts 14 obligated under subparagraph (A) shall be from 15 amounts described in section 133(d)(1)(B) or 16 104(b)(3). 17 ‘‘(C) ANNUAL DETERMINATION.—The de- 18 termination described under subparagraph (A) 19 shall be made on an annual basis. 20 ‘‘(D) METROPOLITAN PLANNING AREA 21 WITH EXCESSIVE FATALITIES AND SERIOUS IN- 22 JURIES PER CAPITA.— 23 ‘‘(i) ANNUAL DETERMINATION.—Be- 24 ginning on the date of enactment of the 25 VerDate Sep 11 2014 02:15 Feb 16, 2021 Jkt 019200 PO 00000 Frm 00005 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H508.IH H508 kjohnson on DSK79L0C42PROD with BILLS 6 •HR 508 IH SAFE Streets Act, a metropolitan plan- 1 ning organization representing an urban- 2 ized area with a population greater than 3 200,000 shall annually determine the num- 4 ber of vulnerable user road fatalities and 5 serious injuries per capita in such area 6 over the most recent 2-year period. 7 ‘‘(ii) REQUIREMENT TO OBLIGATE 8 FUNDS.—If such a metropolitan planning 9 area organization determines that the 10 number of vulnerable user road fatalities 11 and serious injuries per capita in such area 12 over the most recent 2-year period for 13 which data are available exceeds the me- 14 dian number of such fatalities and serious 15 injuries among all urbanized areas with a 16 population of over 200,000, then there 17 shall be obligated over the 2 fiscal years 18 following the fiscal year in which such de- 19 termination is made an amount that is not 20 less than 75 percent of the amount set 21 aside for that urbanized area under section 22 133(h)(2) for fiscal year 2020 for projects 23 identified in the program of projects de- 24 scribed in subsection (l)(7)(C). 25 VerDate Sep 11 2014 02:15 Feb 16, 2021 Jkt 019200 PO 00000 Frm 00006 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H508.IH H508 kjohnson on DSK79L0C42PROD with BILLS 7 •HR 508 IH ‘‘(E) SOURCE OF FUNDS.— 1 ‘‘(i) METROPOLITAN PLANNING ORGA- 2 NIZATION IN STATE REQUIRED TO OBLI- 3 GATE FUNDS.—For a metropolitan plan- 4 ning organization in a State required to 5 obligate funds to vulnerable user safety 6 under subparagraph (A), the State shall be 7 required to obligate from such amounts re- 8 quired to be obligated for vulnerable road 9 user safety under subparagraph (B) for 10 projects described in subsection (l)(7). 11 ‘‘(ii) OTHER METROPOLITAN PLAN- 12 NING ORGANIZATIONS.—For a metropoli- 13 tan planning organization that is not lo- 14 cated within a State required to obligate 15 funds to vulnerable user safety under sub- 16 paragraph (A), the State shall be required 17 to obligate from amounts apportioned 18 under section 104(b)(3) for projects de- 19 scribed in subsection (l)(7).’’; and 20 (5) by adding at the end the following: 21 ‘‘(l) VULNERABLE ROAD USER SAFETY ASSESS- 22 MENT.— 23 ‘‘(1) IN GENERAL.—Not later than 1 year after 24 date of enactment of the SAFE Streets Act, each 25 VerDate Sep 11 2014 02:15 Feb 16, 2021 Jkt 019200 PO 00000 Frm 00007 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H508.IH H508 kjohnson on DSK79L0C42PROD with BILLS 8 •HR 508 IH State shall create a vulnerable road user safety as- 1 sessment. 2 ‘‘(2) CONTENTS.—A vulnerable road user safety 3 assessment required under paragraph (1) shall in- 4 clude— 5 ‘‘(A) a description of the location within 6 the State of each vulnerable road user fatality 7 and serious injury and the design speed of the 8 roadway at any such location; 9 ‘‘(B) a description of any corridors identi- 10 fied by a State, in coordination with local gov- 11 ernments, metropolitan planning organizations, 12 and regional transportation planning organiza- 13 tions that pose a high risk of a vulnerable road 14 user fatality or serious injury and the design 15 speeds of such corridors; 16 ‘‘(C) a program of projects or strategies to 17 reduce safety risks to vulnerable road users in 18 corridors identified under subparagraph (B), in 19 coordination with local governments, metropoli- 20 tan planning organizations, and regional trans- 21 portation planning organizations that represent 22 a high-risk area identified under subparagraph 23 (B); and 24 VerDate Sep 11 2014 02:15 Feb 16, 2021 Jkt 019200 PO 00000 Frm 00008 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H508.IH H508 kjohnson on DSK79L0C42PROD with BILLS 9 •HR 508 IH ‘‘(D) include a list of projects within the 1 State that primarily address the safety of vul- 2 nerable road users that— 3 ‘‘(i) have been completed during the 2 4 most recent fiscal years prior to date of 5 the publication of the vulnerable road user 6 safety assessment, including the amount of 7 funding that has been dedicated to those 8 projects, described in total amounts and as 9 a percentage of total capital expenditures; 10 and 11 ‘‘(ii) are planned to be completed dur- 12 ing the 2 fiscal years following the date of 13 the publication of the vulnerable road user 14 assessment, including the amount of fund- 15 ing that the State plans to be dedicated to 16 those projects, described in total amounts 17 and as a percentage of total capital ex- 18 penditures. 19 ‘‘(3) ANALYSIS.—In creating a vulnerable road 20 user safety assessment under this subsection, a 21 State shall assess the last 5 years of available data. 22 ‘‘(4) REQUIREMENTS.—In creating a vulnerable 23 road user safety assessment under this subsection, a 24 State shall— 25 VerDate Sep 11 2014 02:15 Feb 16, 2021 Jkt 019200 PO 00000 Frm 00009 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H508.IH H508 kjohnson on DSK79L0C42PROD with BILLS 10 •HR 508 IH ‘‘(A) take into consideration a safe system 1 approach; and 2 ‘‘(B) coordinate with local governments, 3 metropolitan planning organizations, and re- 4 gional transportation planning organizations 5 that represent a high-risk area identified under 6 paragraph (2)(B). 7 ‘‘(5) UPDATE.—A State shall update a vulner- 8 able road user safety assessment on the same sched- 9 ule as the State updates the State strategic highway 10 safety plan. 11 ‘‘(6) TRANSPORTATION SYSTEM ACCESS.—The 12 program of projects developed under paragraph 13 (2)(C) may not degrade transportation system ac- 14 cess for vulnerable road users. 15 ‘‘(7) METROPOLITAN PLANNING AREA ASSESS- 16 MENTS.—A metropolitan planning organization that 17 represents an urbanized area with a population 18 greater than 200,000 shall complete a vulnerable 19 user safety assessment based on the most recent 5 20 years of available data, unless an assessment was 21 completed in the previous 5 years, including— 22 ‘‘(A) a description of the location within 23 the urbanized area of each vulnerable road user 24 VerDate Sep 11 2014 02:15 Feb 16, 2021 Jkt 019200 PO 00000 Frm 00010 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H508.IH H508 kjohnson on DSK79L0C42PROD with BILLS 11 •HR 508 IH fatality and serious injury and the design speed 1 of the roadway at any such location; 2 ‘‘(B) a description of any corridors that 3 represent a high-risk area identified under 4 paragraph (2)(B) that pose a high risk of a vul- 5 nerable road user fatality or serious injury and 6 the design speeds of such corridors; and 7 ‘‘(C) a program of projects or strategies to 8 reduce safety risks to vulnerable road users in 9 corridors identified under subparagraph (B).’’. 10 Æ VerDate Sep 11 2014 02:15 Feb 16, 2021 Jkt 019200 PO 00000 Frm 00011 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6301 E:\BILLS\H508.IH H508 kjohnson on DSK79L0C42PROD with BILLS