STAND. COM. REP. NO. 418

Honolulu, Hawaii

RE:    S.B. No. 128

       S.D. 1

Honorable Donna Mercado Kim

President of the Senate

Twenty-Eighth State Legislature

Regular Session of 2015

State of Hawaii

Madam:

     Your Committee on Transportation, to which was referred S.B. No. 128 entitled:

"A BILL FOR AN ACT RELATING TO MOTOR VEHICLES,"

begs leave to report as follows:

     The purpose and intent of this measure is to prohibit a motor vehicle from being operated within one meter of a moving bicycle.

     Your Committee received testimony in support of this measure from the Hawaii Bicycling League.  Your Committee received testimony in opposition to this measure from the Hawaii Transportation Association and two individuals.

     Prior to the hearing on this measure, your Committee posted for public review a proposed S.D. 1 which made an appropriation for a grant-in-aid to the City and County of Honolulu to operate a van pool program on Oahu; subject to certain reporting requirements.

     Your Committee received testimony in support of the proposed S.D. 1 from the Department of Transportation; VRide; Enterprise Holdings, LLC; and one individual.

     Your Committee finds that bicycling should be encouraged as an alternative form of transportation.  Making sure that bicyclists are safe will encourage more people to choose bicycles over other forms of transportation.

     Your Committee further finds that van pools receive federal funding and providing a grant-in-aid to the City and County of Honolulu to operate a van pool program will preserve federal funding and enhance this vital service to the commuters of Oahu.

     Your Committee has amended this measure by:

     (1)  Inserting the contents of the proposed S.D. 1; and

     (2)  Making technical, nonsubstantive amendments for the purposes of clarity and consistency.

     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 S.B. No. 128, as amended herein, and recommends that it pass Second Reading in the form attached hereto as S.B. No. 128, S.D. 1, and be referred to the Committee on Ways and Means.

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

____________________________

CLARENCE K. NISHIHARA, Chair