STAND. COM. REP. NO. 2348

Honolulu, Hawaii

RE: S.B. No. 2630

S.D. 1

Honorable Ronald D. Kouchi

President of the Senate

Thirty-Second State Legislature

Regular Session of 2024

State of Hawaii

Sir:

Your Committee on Transportation and Culture and the Arts, to which was referred S.B. No. 2630 entitled:

"A BILL FOR AN ACT RELATING TO PEDESTRIANS,"

begs leave to report as follows:

The purpose and intent 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, Grassroot Institute of Hawaii, Hawaiʻi Appleseed Center for Law and Economic Justice, Hawaiʻi Bicycling League, Hawaiʻi Public Health Institute, Our Revolution Hawaii, and eight individuals.

Your Committee received testimony in opposition to this measure from the Department of Transportation, the Department of Law Enforcement, and Honolulu Police Department.

Your Committee received comments on this measure from the Department of Health and one individual.

Your Committee finds that current statutes in Hawaii relating to pedestrians are needlessly restrictive. Fines for pedestrians can have a disproportionate impact on people who do not drive and who primarily rely upon walking as a means of transportation. Your Committee additionally finds that the judgment of pedestrians can be more effective in mitigating injuries than traffic lights or street markings, and thus should be trusted to cross the street when the absence of oncoming traffic makes it reasonably safe to cross. This measure will provide pedestrians with greater freedom and encourage more people to walk.

Your Committee has amended this measure by:

(1) Adding language that will limit the exemption to pedestrians who are more than two hundred feet from a marked crosswalk;

(2) Adding language that requires that any person that drives a motor vehicle at a speed greater than the speed limit be fined not less than $100;

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

(4) 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. 2630, as amended herein, and recommends that it pass Second Reading in the form attached hereto as S.B. No. 2630, 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