UPDATE – Bill 44 scheduled to be heard by the Honolulu Council Transportation Committee on September 24, 2024.
August 21, 2024
Introduced by Council Vice Chair Esther Kia‘aina and Council member Tyler Dos Santos-Tam, Bill 44, if passed in its current form, could create a 20 mph speed limit. It could also set 20 mph as a default speed limit on streets that border school campuses.
Currently, city laws allow only 15 and 25 mph speed limits.
If adopted, Bill 44 would also set 20 mph as the speed limit for streets that do not have established speed limits, the measure indicates.
During a news conference in August, near Kailua Elementary School, Dos Santos-Tam said this bill builds on the state’s recent passage of Senate Bill 3242 — now Act 180 — which waives an engineering study requirement for all streets within 1 mile of a school.
“Right now the (city Department of Transportation Services) can only set speed limits at 15 mph and 25 mph,” he said. “So this allows them to go to 20 mph, which will hopefully reduce speed and make things safer, especially around schools.”The default speed for many residential streets on Oahu is 25 mph, he added.
“By decreasing the speed limit from 25 mph to just 20 mph, we are decreasing the chances of pedestrian fatalities by more than 50%,” she said.
At the news conference, HBL Executive Director Travis Counsell pledged support for this safety measure.
HPD Traffic Division Maj. Stason Tanaka added that as of Monday, Oahu had 24 traffic fatalities, as opposed to 32 at the same time in 2023.
“So far this year on Oahu, we’ve had eight fatalities involving pedestrians, as opposed to four pedestrian fatalities at the same time last year,” he said, adding there have also been “six pedestrian-involved collisions resulting in criticaltype injuries, as opposed to 11 at the same time last year.”
Jon Nouchi, DTS deputy director, said Bill 44’s potential passage means it will align with the city’s Vision Zero program, which seeks “zero deaths on our roadways.”