SR58

WHEREAS, the Legislature finds that the State's worsening transportation problems are imposing substantial costs on the State's residents and businesses; and

WHEREAS, traffic congestion in the State's major metropolitan areas has worsened over time; and

WHEREAS, traffic congestion diminishes air quality and safety; undermines the State's economic health, its residents' quality of life, and prosperity; and perpetuates poverty; and

WHEREAS, the absence of a specific and concrete plan by the State to address traffic congestion ensures that traffic congestion will continue to worsen; and

WHEREAS, the State must act to minimize traffic congestion in order to contribute to the economic growth of the State and to the well-being and safety of all the State's residents; now, therefore,

BE IT RESOLVED by the Senate of the Twenty-fourth Legislature of the State of Hawaii, Regular Session of 2007, that the Department of Transportation is requested to create and implement a traffic congestion reduction plan to apply to all counties; and

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that the Department of Transportation is requested to adopt an objective to provide freeway and arterial level of service E, as defined in the Highway Capacity Manual 2000 edition of the Transportation Research Board, at ninety-nine per cent of the intersections on all islands, while they operate under normal conditions during peak periods of traffic; and

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that the Department of Transportation is requested to adopt interim objectives that improve the level of service for at least ten miles of urban arterial streets of freeways per year; and

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that the Department of Transportation is requested to propose a cost-effective plan to achieve the long-term and interim objectives at the lowest possible cost, with the principal purpose of the plan to be to identify the roadway resources and strategies that would need to be implemented to achieve the long-term and interim traffic congestion reduction objectives, and to include cost estimates and the cost per reduced-delay-hour compared to the status quo case for the achievement of the long-term and interim traffic congestion reduction objectives; and

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that the traffic congestion reduction plan should not include the use of tolling or road pricing except for capacity expansion and no lanes currently operating without tolls shall be converted to tolling or road pricing; and

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that to the maximum extent feasible, the Department of Transportation is requested to apply a cost-per-delay-hour standard in project evaluation within each of the counties and the costs include only actual proposed monetary expenditures by the State or other organizations making actual monetary expenditures with respect to the projects under consideration; and

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that in all project planning, the Department of Transportation is requested to consider the cost-per-reduced-delay-hour as a factor in decision making and require the use of the cost-per-delay-hour factor in any major project planning by any authority, agency, or jurisdiction receiving transportation funding from the State; provided that major projects include any project with a projected cost of $10,000,000 or more; and

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that the Department of Transportation is requested to re-evaluate all major projects two years after completion to ascertain actual delay improvements and actual benefits and costs; and

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that the Department of Transportation is requested to create and implement a traffic flow improvement plan and to provide an effective incident management plan that reduces annual incident congestion delay by at least twenty-five per cent by June 30, 2012; and

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that the plan should reduce delays caused by congestion on roadways that are scheduled for improvement projects by an average of ten per cent per year; and

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that the plan should reduce delay caused by congestion in construction work zones by ten per cent per year; and

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that the Department of Transportation is requested to create and implement a statewide infrastructure maintenance and improvement program; and

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that the statewide infrastructure maintenance and improvement program should maintain annually at least eighty per cent of the State's road surface in acceptable ride quality condition as measured by the International Roughness Index; and

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that the statewide infrastructure maintenance and improvement program should maintain annually all bridges identified as weight restricted or structurally deficient, or both, so that no adverse effect arises from their safe use by emergency vehicles, school buses, and vehicles serving the area economy; and

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that the statewide infrastructure maintenance and improvement program should provide for repair of all reported potholes located in roadways within one day of the receipt of notification ninety-eight per cent of the time except during emergencies and adverse weather; and

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that the Department of Transportation is requested to create and implement a statewide safety enhancement program; and

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that the statewide safety enhancement program should, for the period up until June 30, 2016, reduce the:

(1) Injury rate, as measured by injuries per 100,000,000 vehicle miles traveled, by an average of two per cent per year; and

(2) Number of injuries by 1.5 per cent per year; and

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that the statewide safety enhancement program should, for the period up until June 30, 2016, reduce the:

(1) Fatality rate, as measured by fatalities per 100,000,000 vehicle miles traveled, by an average of two per cent per year; and

(2) Number of fatalities by 1.5 per cent per year; and

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that the Department of Transportation is requested to develop emergency preparedness plans, including regional evacuation plans, to respond to natural disasters, incidents related to homeland security, and serious disruption of major arteries due to infrastructure failure or serious traffic accidents; and

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that the Department of Transportation is requested to work cooperatively with the College of Engineering of the University of Hawaii in the creation of a transportation research center and transportation programs that integrate engineering education with congestion mitigation and safety improvements in the State; and

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that the Department of Transportation is requested to submit a written report annually to this body no later than twenty days prior to the start of each Regular Session, which shall be a public document that shall be posted on the Department of Transportation's internet website and retained for a minimum of twenty-five years; and

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that certified copies of this Resolution be transmitted to Governor, the Director of

Transportation, and the Dean of the College of Engineering of the University of Hawaii.

	OFFERED BY:	_____________________________

Report Title:

Department of Transportation

THE SENATE	S.R. NO.	58
TWENTY-FOURTH LEGISLATURE, 2007
STATE OF HAWAII