HB983.DOC

SECTION 1. The legislature finds that almost every school in Hawaii is plagued by traffic congestion that results from poor planning and increased vehicular traffic. It is estimated that as much as twenty to twenty-five per cent of morning traffic consists of parents driving their children to school. Ironically, safety concerns lead parents to drive their children to school, which increases the traffic and makes it even less safe for others to walk and bike. Unfortunately, fifty per cent of children who are hit by cars near schools are hit by cars driven by parents of other students.

As part of the 2005 Safe, Accountable, Flexible, Efficient Transportation Equity Act: A Legacy for Users, Public Law No. 109-59, Hawaii has been awarded $1,000,000 per year for five years for the Safe Routes to School program. Program funds may be used for both infrastructure-related and behavioral projects designed to reduce traffic, fuel consumption, and air pollution in the vicinity of schools and provide a safe and appealing environment for primary and secondary school children to walk and bicycle to school. Unfortunately, Hawaii has not made optimum use of its $5,000,000 share of Safe Routes to School grant funding. Implementation of the program and distribution of funds has been slow, and as a result, $3,000,000 remains unused.

Efficient and effective use of Safe Routes to School funding requires planning that includes the full range of community stakeholders so that projects have the support of parents, students, and schools needed to succeed. Planning also needs to deemphasize very expensive engineering changes, like additional traffic lights that can consume one-third of the annual grant budget. Smaller projects involving more stakeholders and more schools are necessary to generate change across a broad spectrum of the State. The process must begin with assembling basic information about transportation issues confronting students, parents, and the community.

The purpose of this Act is to reduce traffic congestion around schools and to make it safe for more students to walk or bicycle to school.

SECTION 2. (a) The director of transportation, through the Safe Routes to School coordinator, shall conduct a statewide pupil travel evaluation to study how students get to school and use that information to provide Safe Routes to School program funds to each school for school-based workshops and community planning that will reduce vehicular travel and congestion, encourage walking and bicycling, and increase health and safety.

(b) The evaluation required by subsection (a) shall:

(1) Identify the modes of travel used by students to get to each school;

(2) Using direct observation, determine the number of students using each mode of travel;

(3) Survey the parents of each student to gather information regarding the factors involved in the choice of transportation mode for the student and, where the student travels by automobile or bus, what would need to change for the parent to permit the student to walk or ride a bicycle to school;

(4) Identify traffic infrastructure elements in the immediate vicinity of each school, including multi-lane roadways, speed limits, and traffic calming features that, either by their presence or absence, contribute to the use of automobiles to as a student's mode of travel to school; and

(5) Prepare a map of the immediate vicinity of each school that can be used to identify alternate locations for students to be dropped off by automobiles and buses and safe routes for students to walk and ride bicycles to school.

SECTION 3. (a) The director of transportation, through the Safe Routes to School coordinator, shall distribute Safe Routes to School program funds in amounts ranging from $500 to $1,000 for school-based workshops and community-based planning that, based upon the evaluation required by section 2, will develop ways to reduce traffic congestion around schools, including walking and bicycling to school, safety education and traveling in groups, and improving safety for those students who are driven to school by automobile or bus with remote drop-off points and traffic management measures. The planning shall include community stakeholders and engineers, police, school administrators, parents, staff, and safety officials.

(b) The director of transportation shall develop a streamlined application process for federal Safe Routes to School grants that expedites release of funding for the individual projects developed pursuant to subsection (a).

SECTION 4. The director of transportation shall submit a report of the results of the statewide pupil travel evaluation required by this Act and the school-based workshops and community-based planning projects funded by the Safe Routes to School program, no later than twenty days prior to the convening of the regular session of 2010.

SECTION 5. This Act shall take effect upon its approval.

INTRODUCED BY:	_____________________________

HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES	H.B. NO.	983
TWENTY-FIFTH LEGISLATURE, 2009
STATE OF HAWAII