STAND. COM. REP. NO. 1633-24

Honolulu, Hawaii

, 2024

RE: S.B. No. 2630

S.D. 1

H.D. 2

Honorable Scott K. Saiki

Speaker, House of Representatives

Thirty-Second State Legislature

Regular Session of 2024

State of Hawaii

Sir:

Your Committee on Judiciary & Hawaiian Affairs, to which was referred S.B. No. 2630, S.D. 1, H.D. 1, entitled:

"A BILL FOR AN ACT RELATING TO PEDESTRIANS,"

begs leave to report as follows:

The purpose of this measure is to authorize pedestrians to act contrary to the Statewide Traffic Code when a reasonably careful pedestrian would determine that there is no immediate danger of a collision with a moving vehicle.

Your Committee received testimony in support of this measure from one member of the Kauaʻi County Council; Hawaiʻi Public Health Institute; Hawaiʻi Appleseed Center for Law and Economic Justice; American Civil Liberties Union of Hawaiʻi; Grassroot Institute of Hawaii; Get Fit Kauai; Hawaiʻi Bicycling League; America Walks; Kauai Path, Inc.; and numerous individuals. Your Committee received testimony in opposition to this measure from the Department of Law Enforcement; Department of Transportation; Honolulu Police Department; Maui Police Department; D. Otani Produce; and two individuals. Your Committee received comments on this measure from the Department of Health and one individual.

Your Committee finds that pedestrians should be trusted to cross the street when the absence of oncoming traffic makes it reasonably safe to do so. Your Committee further finds that removing jaywalking penalties has not been found to increase adverse public safety outcomes.

Your Committee has amended this measure by:

(1) Deleting language that limited the authorized action in this measure to only when pedestrians are more than two hundred feet from a marked crosswalk; and

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

As affirmed by the record of votes of the members of your Committee on Judiciary & Hawaiian Affairs that is attached to this report, your Committee is in accord with the intent and purpose of S.B. No. 2630, S.D. 1, H.D. 1, as amended herein, and recommends that it pass Third Reading in the form attached hereto as S.B. No. 2630, S.D. 1, H.D. 2.

Respectfully submitted on behalf of the members of the Committee on Judiciary & Hawaiian Affairs,

____________________________

DAVID A. TARNAS, Chair