STAND. COM. REP. NO.  465-12

 

Honolulu, Hawaii

                , 2012

 

RE:   H.B. No. 2626

      H.D. 1

 

 

 

 

Honorable Calvin K.Y. Say

Speaker, House of Representatives

Twenty-Sixth State Legislature

Regular Session of 2012

State of Hawaii

 

Sir:

 

     Your Committee on Transportation, to which was referred H.B. No. 2626 entitled:

 

"A BILL FOR AN ACT RELATING TO SAFE ROUTES TO SCHOOL,"

 

begs leave to report as follows:

 

     The purpose of this measure is to enhance traffic safety, especially around Hawaii's schools by statutorily requiring the Director of Transportation to:

 

(1)  Conduct a statewide pupil travel evaluation, through the Safe Routes to School Coordinator, to study how students get to school;

 

(2)  Use the information gained from the evaluation from the Safe Routes to School Program to provide funds to each school for school-based workshops and community planning to reduce vehicular traffic and congestion around schools, encourage walking and bicycling to school, promote safety education, and improve safety for students around schools;

 

(3)  Develop a streamlined application process for federal Safe Routes to School grants; and

 

(4)  Submit a report of the results of the statewide pupil travel evaluation and the school-based workshops and community-based planning projects funded by the Safe Routes to School Program to the Legislature.

 

     This measure also:

 

     (1)  Establishes a Safe Routes to School Program Special Fund;

 

     (2)  Allows for the assessment of a surcharge of $25 for violations of speeding in a school zone and a $10 surcharge on various traffic violations and deposits these surcharges into the Safe Routes to School Program Special Fund; and

 

     (3)  Deposits federal Safe Routes to School Program moneys into the Safe Routes to School Program Special Fund.

 

     The Department of Education, Vice Chair of the Kauai County Council, Department of Public Works of the County of Kauai, Planning Department of the County of Kauai, Get Fit Kauai, NPAC: Nutrition and Physical Activity Coalition of Kauai, PATH-Peoples Advocacy for Trails Hawaii, Kauai PATH, Blue Planet Foundation, YES Kaua'i Youth Educational Sports, Inc., and several concerned individuals testified in support of this measure.  The Department of Transportation and Department of Health testified in support of the intent of this measure.  The Department of Budget and Finance submitted comments.

 

     Traffic congestion continues to increase around Hawaii's schools.  This in turn causes parents, who worry about the safety of their children, to drive their children to school, causing even more congestion around schools and increasing safety risks for students.  Evaluating the modes of transportation students currently use to get to school and conducting various workshops and community-based meetings to promote alternative methods of transportation to school will not only alleviate traffic congestion but also increase student safety.

 

     However, your Committee understands that flexibility is needed to get safe routes to school improvements processed and completed as smoothly as possible which, according to the Department of Transportation, can best be accomplished if counties are able to operate their respective programs as independently as possible.

 

     Your Committee has amended this measure by:

 

     (1)  Requiring, rather than allowing, the courts to assess the surcharges of $25 for violations of speeding in a school zone and $10 for various traffic violations;

 

     (2)  Adding language making a distinction between the federal safe routes to school program and a county safe routes to school program;

 

     (3)  Streamlining the use of safe routes to school funds and removing conflicts with federal laws by specifying that a county-designated office, through the county safe routes to school program coordinator shall provide funds for school-based and community-based workshops and infrastructure and non-infrastructure projects;

 

     (4)  Requiring the Director of Transportation to develop a mechanism to provide funds to county safe routes to school programs from the Safe Routes to School Program Special Fund to be used for the implementation of county safe routes to school program projects;

 

     (5)  Clarifying that in the implementation of the safe routes to school program, consideration be given to filling a permanent, full-time position of safe a routes to school coordinator within a county designated office rather than the Department of Transportation;

 

     (6)  Clarifying that in the implementation of the safe routes to school program, consideration be given to working in conjunction with county designated safe routes to school stakeholders for school-based workshops and community-based projects;

 

     (7)  Deleting language requiring federal safe routes to school program funds to be deposited into the Safe Routes to School Program Special Fund as this is not allowed under current federal regulations;

 

     (8)  Removing the limitation to the improvements in public school zones to only traffic calming measures; and

 

     (9)  Making technical, nonsubstantive amendments for clarity, consistency, and style.

 

     As affirmed by the record of votes of the members of your Committee on Transportation that is attached to this report, your Committee is in accord with the intent and purpose of H.B. No. 2626, as amended herein, and recommends that it pass Second Reading in the form attached hereto as H.B. No. 2626, H.D. 1, and be referred to the Committee on Finance.

 

Respectfully submitted on behalf of the members of the Committee on Transportation,

 

 

 

 

____________________________

JOSEPH M. SOUKI, Chair