As children return to schools around Oahu, seeing them cross a busy street safely is of concern to city leaders.
To that end, the Honolulu City Council will consider a measure Wednesday that would lower speed limits in school zones.
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 Monday 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.
Kia‘aina — who represents District 3, which encompasses Windward Oahu, and is running for reelection this year — said Bill 44 “has been requested by many in our community to increase traffic safety, especially in our school zones.”
“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, the Honolulu Police Department also weighed in on vehicle crashes involving pedestrians.
“It’s also especially tough when keiki are involved in these collisions,” HPD Traffic Division Maj. Stason Tanaka said. “So hopefully this bill … is a positive step forward into safeguarding our pedestrians, keiki and kupuna alike.”
Tanaka noted 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.”
He added “speed continues to be a contributing factor for collisions resulting in fatalities and critical-type injuries.”
“By slowing down, it allows drivers more of an opportunity to react to potential hazards on the road,” he said. “It also allows pedestrians, likewise, to react to dangerous drivers. Slower speeds also allow pedestrians more time to cross the street, and as we all know, the slower the speed, the less propensity for property damages and/or injuries.”
Tanaka urged pedestrians to use crosswalks.
“So far this year, all of our pedestrian fatality and critical injury-type collisions resulted from pedestrians who were outside of a crosswalk,” he said.
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.”
“The devastating effects of any kind of road violence or anything like that reverberates throughout our community,” Nouchi said, adding, “At its core this ordinance is about community, it’s about safer communities; and at this point we have never been in a better place where our communities are begging for slower streets, for safer streets.”
But Bill Hicks, chair of the Kailua Neighborhood Board, said pedestrian safety measures in Kailua town were long overdue — particularly in areas fronting Kailua Elementary at 315 Kuulei Road near Maluniu Avenue.
“Twelve years ago the city proposed to install a traffic light at Aulike Street, one block down,” he said, adding, “A lot of kids coming from the Oneawa Street area; it’s all residential. The closest intersection is Aulike Street.”
No traffic light operates at that busy intersection.
Still, Hicks cited state-level information that asserts that reducing vehicle speed does save lives.
“When a vehicle is traveling at 30 mph, the state has published that there’s a 45% likelihood of a fatality,” he said. “However, when the impact happens at 20 mph, it’s only a 5% likelihood of a fatality. That’s a huge difference between 20 and 30 mph.”
One person with firsthand knowledge of a pedestrian collision also appeared at Monday’s news conference.
Leslie Chan, a 64-year-old Kalihi resident and former preschool teacher, said she was hit by a moving vehicle in 2013 while walking her dogs near St. Francis Hospital.
“The person was texting and boom, I was in a coma,” she said, adding after she awoke “the doctor told me I’d be paralyzed for life.”
Although she is now able to walk with the aid of a walker, Chan said the driver of the vehicle was later let go as the Office of the Prosecuting Attorney declined to charge the man with a crime. “They called it ‘accidental,’” she said.
