Protect Vulnerable Road Users

Section 1 of the bill amends the statute that governs the use of automated vehicle identification systems (AVIS) on roadways other than toll highways operated by a public highway authority or the high-performance transportation enterprise in the department of transportation (CDOT) to:

• Clarify that CDOT and the Colorado state patrol (CSP) have authority to use AVIS to detect traffic violations on any portion of a highway that is part of the state highway system (state highway), which generally includes federal interstate highways, U.S. highways, highways that are not part of any federal system but are declared by the transportation commission to be part of the state highway system, and other federal-aid highways owned or maintained by the state (state highway) ;
• Clarify that the state has final authority to authorize the use of AVIS by a local government on a state highway; the notification and coordination process between local governments, CDOT, and the CSP with respect to the use of AVIS on a state highway; and
• Authorize CDOT , in consultation with the CSP, to promulgate rules relating to the use of AVIS where it is not designated for use or implemented on state highways by the later of January 1, 2025, or the dated the rules are promulgated. including rules governing the process by which use of AVIS is approved or disapproved, rules governing the AVIS enforcement process, and rules setting the amount of civil penalties, including increased civil penalties for traffic violations detected by AVIS that occur in work zones or school zones, for traffic violation detected by AVIS used by the state prioritization criteria.

Section 1 also:

• Requires a local government to coordinate with CDOT and the Colorado state patrol both before designating an AVIS corridor on a state highway and before actually using AVIS on a state highway rather than only before actually using AVIS; and
• Requires Section 1 also requires civil penalties collected by the state for traffic violations detected by AVIS, net of court and operations costs, to be credited to the state highway fund and used only to fund road safety projects that protect vulnerable road users.

Section 2 requires CDOT to establish and include in its statutorily required performance plan declining annual targets for vulnerable road user fatalities and, as part of the targets, also establish engineering methodology and internal education requirements for practices to prioritize safety over speed on high-injury networks.

For state fiscal year 2025-26 and each succeeding state fiscal year, section 3 requires CDOT, after accounting for eligible critical safety-related asset management surface transportation infrastructure projects and as determined by the transportation commission, to expend a specified minimum amount of the money credited allocated to the state highway fund from the road safety surcharge and certain other fees, fines, and surcharges that are imposed on motor vehicle registrations and dedicated for certain types of road safety projects that protect vulnerable road users.

To guide CDOT in implementing sections 2 and 3, section 4 amends an existing definition of "road safety project" to include certain types of projects that protect vulnerable road users and defines the term "vulnerable road user".

(Note: Italicized words indicate new material added to the original summary; dashes through words indicate deletions from the original summary.)

(Note: This summary applies to the reengrossed version of this bill as introduced in the second house.)