STAND. COM. REP. NO. 1299

Honolulu, Hawaii

RE: H.B. No. 1259

H.D. 1

S.D. 1

Honorable Ronald D. Kouchi

President of the Senate

Thirty-Third State Legislature

Regular Session of 2025

State of Hawaii

Sir:

Your Committee on Transportation and Culture and the Arts, 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 and intent 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 current speed limit for that road.

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

Your Committee received testimony in opposition to this measure from one individual.

Your Committee finds that the Department of Transportation conducted an annual behavioral study and found that nearly one‑quarter of respondents admitted to exceeding the speed limit by more than twenty miles per hour, and over half exceeded the speed limit by ten to twenty miles per hour in the last six months. Your Committee further finds lowering speed limits is an effective safety countermeasure to reduce traffic fatalities. Accordingly, this measure will promote road safety for motorists and pedestrians alike by allowing the Department of Transportation or counties flexibility in lowering speed limits within one mile of a school and ten miles per hour.

Your Committee has amended this measure by requiring the Department of Transportation to use National Association of City Transportation Officials guidance when setting a maximum speed limit for sections of highways with residential or commercial areas or schools immediately on a highway.

As affirmed by the record of votes of the members of your Committee on Transportation and Culture and the Arts that is attached to this report, your Committee is in accord with the intent and purpose of H.B. No. 1259, H.D. 1, as amended herein, and recommends that it pass Second Reading in the form attached hereto as H.B. No. 1259, H.D. 1, S.D. 1, and be referred to your Committee on Judiciary.

Respectfully submitted on behalf of the members of the Committee on Transportation and Culture and the Arts,

________________________________

CHRIS LEE, Chair