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DENVER, CO - The House today passed a bill to better protect Colorado students and other road users by strengthening traffic safety near schools. HB26-1318, sponsored by Representatives Kenny Nguyen and Meg Froelich, passed by a vote of 42-21.
“This bill is about creating safer streets for Colorado students,” said Rep. Kenny Nguyen, D-Broomfield. “Under our bill, our communities can create safer roads for students by using technology to enforce school zone speed limits and modernizing Colorado’s traffic laws. Mitigating traffic accidents will reduce risks for pedestrians and cyclists and help save Colorado lives.”
“Too many parents have suffered the tragic loss of their child because of speeding and distracted drivers, and our bill seeks to make roads around Colorado schools safer for all,” said Rep. Meg Froelich, D-Englewood. “This bill creates guidelines for school zones and allows local governments to designate roads as walking and cycling corridors to remove the risk of car collisions. Coloradans deserve safe roads, and our legislation would give our communities more tools to strengthen road safety for Colorado students.”
HB26-1318 would set roadway signage requirements around schools to strengthen road safety for students and road users. The bill would require all roadways within at least 1,000 feet of a new school boundary to have signage indicating the school boundary and that driving penalties are doubled in this area. Existing school zones between 200 and 1000 feet from the school may keep their current school zone boundaries, but must follow the bill’s process for modifying these boundaries. A jurisdiction may reduce the distance that they must put these signs up to 200 feet from the school after they hold a public hearing to ensure the community is aware of this change and given an opportunity to weigh in. The bill also allows jurisdictions to expand school zone boundaries as they see fit and to raise revenue through bonding to fund school zone signage.
The bill also allows a state or local government to use an automated vehicle identification system to detect traffic violations in a school zone or on a Safe Route to School, which is defined as a designated roadway that is frequented by pedestrians and cyclists when commuting to and from school.
Under the bill, local governments may close school streets to vehicles and require vehicles to yield to non-vehicle road users. The maximum speed limit would be set to 10 miles per hour.
This bill is inspired by a fatal accident in 2023 that took the life of Liam Stewart, a Littleton middle schooler, who was hit by a car while biking to school.