Pedestrian Protection Act

Key Points

• The bill directs the Secretary of Transportation to create new safety standards for how cars and trucks are designed, focusing on features like hood shape, bumper design, windshield design, vehicle height, and vehicle weight to reduce deaths and injuries when vehicles hit pedestrians or cyclists.
• Separate rules would set minimum visibility standards so drivers can better see people around their vehicles, helping prevent crashes in places like driveways and parking lots where pedestrians are often hard to spot.
• The government would publish consumer-facing ratings that compare how well different vehicles protect pedestrians and how good driver visibility is, giving car buyers new information to factor into their purchasing decisions.
• The term "covered road user" includes pedestrians, bicyclists, and other vulnerable road users, and "collision" covers crashes that happen at low speeds and in places like driveways, parking lots, or private roads.
• The full timeline stretches over many years: the rulemaking for design standards must begin within 3 years, visibility standards within 4 years, with final rules due 2 years later, and automakers getting another 2 years after that to comply. A congressional report on the visibility rating system is due within 5 years.