STAND. COM. REP. NO. 896

Honolulu, Hawaii

, 2025

RE: H.B. No. 1259

H.D. 1

Honorable Nadine K. Nakamura

Speaker, House of Representatives

Thirty-Third State Legislature

Regular Session of 2025

State of Hawaii

Madame:

Your Committee on Judiciary & Hawaiian Affairs, to which was referred H.B. No. 1259, H.D. 1, entitled:

"A BILL FOR AN ACT RELATING TO TRANSPORTATION,"

begs leave to report as follows:

The purpose of this measure is to specify that an engineering study is not required to be considered when reducing the maximum speed limit within ten miles per hour of the existing speed limit for that road.

Your Committee received testimony in support of this measure from the Department of Transportation; Oahu Metropolitan Planning Organization; and two individuals.

Your Committee finds that from 2023 to 2024, traffic fatalities in Hawaii increased by ten percent. Your Committee further finds that over half of all respondents to the 2024 annual behavioral study conducted by the Department of Transportation reported exceeding the posted speed limit by ten to twenty miles per hour and nearly one quarter reported exceeding the posted speed limit by more than twenty miles per hour. Granting the Department of Transportation the flexibility to lower maximum speed limits within ten miles per hour of the existing speed limit without first conducting a study, as proposed by this measure, will help the State achieve its goal of reducing traffic related deaths and serious injuries to zero by 2045.

As affirmed by the record of votes of the members of your Committee on Judiciary & Hawaiian Affairs that is attached to this report, your Committee is in accord with the intent and purpose of H.B. No. 1259, H.D. 1, and recommends that it pass Third Reading.

Respectfully submitted on behalf of the members of the Committee on Judiciary & Hawaiian Affairs,

____________________________

DAVID A. TARNAS, Chair