I 
111TH CONGRESS 
1ST SESSION 
H. R. 734 
To direct the Secretary of Transportation to study and establish a motor 
vehicle safety standard that provides for a means of alerting blind and 
other pedestrians of motor vehicle operation. 
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 
JANUARY 28, 2009 
Mr. TOWNS (for himself, Mr. BISHOP of Georgia, Mr. BOOZMAN, Mr. 
CARNAHAN, Mr. ELLISON, Mr. FILNER, Mr. HARE, Mr. HINCHEY, Mr. 
LATHAM, Mr. LEWIS of Georgia, Mr. LOEBSACK, Mrs. MALONEY, Mr. 
MCDERMOTT, Mr. PASTOR of Arizona, Mr. PRICE of North Carolina, Mr. 
RUPPERSBERGER, Ms. SCHAKOWSKY, Mr. SERRANO, Mr. SESSIONS, Ms. 
SHEA-PORTER, Mr. STARK, Mr. STEARNS, Ms. WASSERMAN SCHULTZ, 
Mr. WITTMAN, Mr. YOUNG of Alaska, Ms. BORDALLO, Mr. NADLER of 
New York, Ms. BERKLEY, Ms. CORRINE BROWN of Florida, Ms. HAR-
MAN, Mr. MORAN of Virginia, Mr. MCINTYRE, Mr. COHEN, Mr. WALZ, 
and Mrs. LOWEY) introduced the following bill; which was referred to the 
Committee on Energy and Commerce 
A BILL 
To direct the Secretary of Transportation to study and estab-
lish a motor vehicle safety standard that provides for 
a means of alerting blind and other pedestrians of motor 
vehicle operation. 
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa-
tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 
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SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 
This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Pedestrian Safety En-
hancement Act of 2009’’. 
SEC. 2. DEFINITIONS. 
As used in this Act— 
(1) the term ‘‘Secretary’’ means the Secretary 
of Transportation; and 
(2) the term ‘‘motor vehicle’’ has the meaning 
given such term in section 30102(a)(6) of title 49, 
United States Code. 
SEC. 3. FINDINGS. 
Congress finds that— 
(1) motor vehicles designed to provide the desir-
able benefits of reducing harmful pollutants and op-
erating with greater fuel efficiency include gasoline- 
electric hybrid and electric-only vehicles, and in the 
foreseeable future may include vehicles powered by 
hydrogen fuel cell and other engine designs that rely 
on fuels and technologies other than the gasoline- 
powered internal combustion engine; 
(2) these vehicle engine designs operate or are 
likely to operate with virtually no sound being pro-
duced by the vehicle; 
(3) the total number of hybrid motor vehicles 
sold per year in the United States is growing dra-
matically, and may someday equal or exceed the 
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number of internal combustion engine motor vehicles 
on the Nation’s roads; 
(4) blind pedestrians cannot locate and evaluate 
traffic by sight and instead must listen to traffic to 
discern its speed, direction, and other attributes in 
order to travel safely and independently; 
(5) other people, including pedestrians who are 
not blind, bicyclists, runners, and small children, 
benefit from multi-sensory information available 
from vehicle traffic, including the sound of vehicle 
engines; 
(6) when operating on their electric engines, hy-
brid vehicles cannot be heard by blind people and 
others, rendering such vehicles extremely dangerous 
when driving on the street, emerging from drive-
ways, moving through parking lots, and in other sit-
uations where pedestrians and vehicles come into 
proximity with each other; 
(7) failure to take immediate action assuring 
that blind pedestrians can hear hybrid and other si-
lent vehicles in all phases of their operation will in-
evitably lead to pedestrian injuries and fatalities; 
and 
(8) such accidents are preventable through vehi-
cle designs which take into account the multi-sen-
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