Advocates are supporting measures that would boost funding for pedestrian-friendly infrastructure near schools.
The state Department of Transportation manages the Safe Routes to School fund and program, which is meant to make it easier for students to walk and bicycle to school. A state law passed in 2023 created an advisory committee to develop a plan and review projects and other funding sources.
Two measures, House Bill 1231 and Senate Bill 1009, would add to the fund by increasing fines on vehicle violations.
HB1231 proposes an additional $100 fine on those who improperly park in spaces reserved for electric vehicles or people with disabilities. SB1009 commits a percentage of the fines collected from drivers caught by red light cameras at select intersections.
Kathleen Rooney, Ulupono Initiative’s director for transportation policy and programs, said adding to the fund helps the broader community, not just students.
“It is a different way of developing project ideas and meeting community needs. You go into a school and you’re dealing with families, and it’s a specific set of travel, but usually if it works for kids, it works for our kūpuna, it works for your adults, it works for everybody in that immediate localized community,” Rooney said.
She also heads the Safe Routes Advisory Committee, which has been tasked with identifying, reviewing and prioritizing projects within a mile of any school or place of learning.
The 2023 law put $10 million in the fund during each of the last two fiscal years. But the committee, which has been meeting since last summer, in a 20-page report to the state Legislature, identified more than $800 million in existing projects that can be supported under the Safe Routes fund.
The Oʻahu Pedestrian Plan identified about $547 million in missing sidewalks for the island, where 87% of the population lives within a mile of a public school.
The committee listed some projects provided by the counties, which include sidewalk improvements, speed limit signs, protected bicycle lanes and even non-infrastructure efforts like staff training and education programs.