STAND. COM. REP. NO. 1322

Honolulu, Hawaii

RE: H.B. No. 839

H.D. 1

S.D. 1

Honorable Ronald D. Kouchi

President of the Senate

Thirtieth State Legislature

Regular Session of 2019

State of Hawaii

Sir:

Your Committee on Transportation, to which was referred H.B. No. 839, H.D. 1, entitled:

"A BILL FOR AN ACT RELATING TO TRAFFIC SIGNALS ON THE PALI HIGHWAY,"

begs leave to report as follows:

The purpose and intent of this measure is to appropriate funds to install signalized crosswalks and related pedestrian improvements at four unsignalized intersections in the Nuuanu area of the Pali Highway.

Your Committee received testimony in support of this measure from the Department of Transportation.

Your Committee finds that pedestrian fatalities have increased significantly in the past year. According to the Governors Highway Safety Association, pedestrian fatalities in Hawaii have increased by 1,800 percent from the first six months of 2017 to the first six months of 2018. Your Committee further finds that as of February 2019, there have been nine pedestrian fatalities in the State, roughly 40 percent of the total fatalities that have occurred so far this year. Your Committee further finds that according to the Insurance Institute of Highway Safety Loss Data Institute, 40 percent of all accidents involving pedestrians occur at a crosswalk with no traffic signal. Installing traffic signals that give pedestrians exclusive access to intersections reduces pedestrian accidents at intersections by half. This measure will reduce the number of pedestrian fatalities in the State by installing pedestrian-activated signalized crosswalks at four potentially dangerous crosswalks in the Nuuanu area of the Pali Highway.

Your Committee has amended this measure by:

(1) Inserting an appropriation of $5,200,000 for the design and installation of signalized crosswalks and related pedestrian improvements in the Nuuanu area; and

(2) Making a technical, nonsubstantive amendment for the purposes of clarity and consistency.

As affirmed by the record of votes of the members of your Committee on Transportation that is attached to this report, your Committee is in accord with the intent and purpose of H.B. No. 839, H.D. 1, as amended herein, and recommends that it pass Second Reading in the form attached hereto as H.B. No. 839, H.D. 1, S.D. 1, and be referred to your Committee on Ways and Means.

Respectfully submitted on behalf of the members of the Committee on Transportation,

________________________________

LORRAINE R. INOUYE, Chair