CHAPTER 906

An Act to direct the Department of Transportation to develop criteria and recommendations for the potential designation of vulnerable road user safety zones in the Commonwealth.

[S 832]

Approved April 13, 2026

Be it enacted by the General Assembly of Virginia:

1. § 1. That the Department of Transportation (the Department) shall develop criteria and recommendations for the potential designation of vulnerable road user safety zones in the Commonwealth in areas that have experienced elevated rates of crashes, injuries, or fatalities involving pedestrians or cyclists. In developing such criteria and recommendations, the Department shall consider (i) crash data, injury reports, severity statistics, and fatality statistics from the previous five years; (ii) the 25 highway segments in the Commonwealth with the highest rates of crashes, injuries, or fatalities involving vulnerable road users as that term is defined in § 46.2-816.1 of the Code of Virginia; (iii) potential safety improvements and how to fund them; (iv) fiscal implications of additional automated traffic enforcement civil penalties in any designated vulnerable road user safety zones; (v) fiscal implications of any potential fines, fees, and costs for related criminal convictions; and (vi) any other relevant information and data. The Department shall submit a report with its criteria and any recommendations to the Chairs of the Senate Committees on Finance and Appropriations and Transportation and the House Committees on Appropriations and Transportation no later than November 1, 2026.