STAND. COM. REP. NO. 29

Honolulu, Hawaii

RE: S.B. No. 56

S.D. 1

Honorable Ronald D. Kouchi

President of the Senate

Thirty-Second State Legislature

Regular Session of 2023

State of Hawaii

Sir:

Your Committee on Transportation and Culture and the Arts, to which was referred S.B. No. 56 entitled:

"A BILL FOR AN ACT RELATING TO AUDIBLE VEHICLE REVERSE WARNING SYSTEMS,"

begs leave to report as follows:

The purpose and intent of this measure is to require the use of broadband audible reverse warning systems on state and county-owned vehicles purchased on or after January 1, 2026.

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

Your Committee finds that to reduce urban noise pollution caused by reversing alarms of commercial and construction vehicles, and to ensure safer reversing, it is necessary to transition to newer technology for audible reverse warning systems. Most audible reverse warning systems use a tonal sound of a single frequency; however, broadband alarms use a pulsed acoustic signal that comprises a range of frequencies, which have been found to be more effective than their tonal equivalents. Presently, the federal Occupational Safety and Health Administration requires the use of reversing alarms on construction vehicles to protect people from accidental injury and death, or alternatively the use of an observer to signal to the vehicle driver when it is safe to reverse. Transitioning to broadband reversing alarms will protect more residents from disruptive noise pollution while utilizing safer vehicular reversing practices.

Your Committee has amended this measure by:

(1) Authorizing the Director of Transportation to provide an exemption in the event broadband sirens are unavailable;

(2) Inserting an effective date of July 1, 2050, to encourage further discussion; and

(3) Making technical, nonsubstantive amendments for the purposes of clarity and consistency.

As affirmed by the record of votes of the members of your Committee on Transportation and Culture and the Arts that is attached to this report, your Committee is in accord with the intent and purpose of S.B. No. 56, as amended herein, and recommends that it pass Second Reading in the form attached hereto as S.B. No. 56, S.D. 1, and be referred to your Committee on Judiciary.

Respectfully submitted on behalf of the members of the Committee on Transportation and Culture and the Arts,

________________________________

CHRIS LEE, Chair