Hawaii lawmakers, advocates celebrate traffic bills

Following greater calls to improve traffic laws and pedestrian safety, state legislators and other advocates for safer roads announced the passage of bills to reduce traffic fatalities in Hawaii.

On Thursday, lawmakers at the state Capitol held a news conference celebrating the passing of two bills, House Bill 600 and Senate Bill 1086, through the Legislature to buck a recent trend of growing traffic fatalities in Hawaii.

HB 600’s focus is primarily children, and in particular students making their way to school. Two pedestrian fatalities this year took place near schools, including the high-profile hit-and-run in February that killed 16-year-old Sara Yara, a McKinley High School student who was in a crosswalk on Kapiolani Boulevard on her way to school when a driver hit her.

The bill allocates $20 million — $10 million from the State Highway Fund into the Safe Routes to School Program Special Fund for each of the next two fiscal years — to support the state Department of Transportation’s Safe Routes to School program and projects to improve traffic safety and to match any federal funds the state gets for costs related to sidewalk and other infrastructure planning, development and construction.

HB 600 also creates a Safe Routes to School advisory committee within the Transportation Department with a goal to develop a comprehensive, statewide plan to “ensure that each child in the State is able to safely bike, walk, or roll to school.”

Sen. Chris Lee (D, Kailua- Waimanalo-Hawaii Kai), one of the primary authors of SB 1086, noted the traffic dangers to children in Hawaii.

“For anyone who’s grown up in Hawaii, you know how dangerous it can be if you’re a kid trying to get to school,” he said at the news conference. “We’ve had all kinds of really tragic, horrific situations which we know, if we improve our infrastructure, separate cars from pedestrians and people on bicycles, we can help fix. There are places around the world that have done what we hope to do (in Hawaii). … We have a vision for zero fatalities on our streets.”

Yara’s death prompted roadwork on Kapiolani Boulevard to reduce speeding in the area, and soon after, speed humps were installed. A red-light safety camera at the Kamakee Street intersection where Yara was struck became active in late March.

Chevy Saniatan, Yara’s mother, and others have called on state lawmakers to make more systemic changes to improve traffic safety.

The bills provide additional support that’s still necessary following Yara’s death, McKinley High School Vice Principal Will McGuire said at Thursday’s news conference.

“It’s a shame that a tragedy was needed to drive this,” he said, adding that it wasn’t enough to change the way people drive in the area.

“Less than a week after Sara’s death, I would still see people speeding and running red lights,” he said.

McGuire said that even though the government support is helpful, personal responsibility from drivers is still important.

SB 1086 revamps the State Highway Safety Council by making it more independent from the DOT. The council, which was previously led by the director of transportation, will be chaired on an annually rotating basis by a member appointed by the state Senate president and a member appointed by the speaker of the House of Representatives.

The group of expert stakeholders can now review the Transportation Department’s efforts to achieve its goals; ensure transparency and oversight in its programs, projects and decisions; and establish metrics and benchmarks for the DOT.

The bill also renames the group the State Highway Safety and Modernization Council.

Improved traffic safety would be helpful around the state.

Rep. Sonny Ganaden (D, Kalihi-Kalihi Kai-Hickam Village), who was a primary author for HB 600, said safe routes for Hawaii students are a necessity for Fern Elementary School students in Kalihi.

He said students walk down Kamehameha IV Road to get to school but don’t have a sidewalk to use, so Principal Glen Miyasato has walked students to and from campus.

“There’s numerous instances in which children and the elderly get hit by cars,” Ganaden said. “For years, Glen Miyasato has been doing a ‘walking school bus’ in which he wakes up earlier in the morning and walks the kids back and forth.”

He said the roads in Kalihi and urban Honolulu in general are in disrepair.

Many of the roads throughout urban Honolulu over the last few decades … have turned from private, residential roads to very heavily utilized, industrial avenues used by the entire populace,” Ganaden said. “It’s about time the state starts to … invest in its own roads.”

Yara’s death was also a motivating factor for Diamond Head residents who want to have speed mitigation measures installed along a stretch of Diamond Head Road that’s heavily used by pedestrians and bicyclists but also experiences frequent speeding by vehicles passing through.