The following testimony was submitted by the Grassroot Institute of Hawaii for consideration by the Senate Committee on Transportation and Culture and the Arts on Jan. 30, 2025.
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Jan. 30, 2025, 3 p.m.
Hawaii State Capitol
Conference Room 224 and Videoconference
To: Senate Committee on Transportation and Culture and the Arts
Sen. Chris Lee, Chair
Sen. Lorraine R. Inouye, Vice-Chair
From: Grassroot Institute of Hawaii
Ted Kefalas, Director of Strategic Campaigns
RE: TESTIMONY IN SUPPORT OF SB106 — RELATING TO PEDESTRIANS
Aloha Chair and other members of the Committee,
The Grassroot Institute of Hawaii would like to offer its support for SB106, which would allow pedestrians to act contrary to the traffic code after exercising reasonable care that there is no danger of collision with a moving vehicle.
In other words, this bill trusts people to cross the street after checking carefully that there are no cars coming.
Some people might question the necessity of jaywalking reform, but an examination of the growing movement for such “right to walk” bills demonstrates that jaywalking laws have little to do with public safety. Rather, the enforcement of statutes relating to pedestrians is rigid, and the statutes themselves are — as noted in the bill’s preamble — “needlessly restrictive.”
Any Hawaii resident can regale you with a story of the absurdity of Hawaii’s pedestrian laws, including the expensive citation they or a friend received for being in the crosswalk a few seconds too soon or too late. Such stories are evidence that the current system contributes to an adversarial relationship between law enforcement and the public.
In fact, research from the Hawai’i Appleseed Center for Law and Justice reveals that annual per capita jaywalking citations in Hawaii outstrip locations like New York City or the entirety of Washington State by more than 5,800%.[1] Moreover, jaywalking citations issued in Hawaii are highly concentrated at certain locations.[2] Together, these two facts suggest that something other than public safety is motivating the state’s excessive enforcement of jaywalking laws.
Another reason to reexamine jaywalking laws can be found in the evidence that such laws have been disproportionately enforced against disadvantaged groups and minorities.[3] As the bill notes, “fines for pedestrians can have a disproportionate impact on people who do not drive and who primarily rely upon walking as a means of transportation.”
As for the legitimate worries about safety, data from Virginia’s 2020 decriminalization of jaywalking demonstrates that right-to-walk laws do not lead to an increase in pedestrian injuries or deaths.[4] After all, people crossing the street are more concerned about not getting hit by a car than avoiding a fine.
Finally, as the bill points out, decriminalizing jaywalking would encourage more people to walk while making the streets friendlier to pedestrians.
Again, this bill trusts Hawaii residents to cross the street safely. We commend the committee for considering this bill.
Thank you for the opportunity to testify.
Ted Kefalas
Director of Strategic Campaigns
Grassroot Institute of Hawaii
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[1] Abbey Seitz, “Freedom to Walk: Decriminalizing Jaywalking and Shifting Investment Towards Safe, Accessible Pedestrian Infrastructure,” Hawaii Appleseed Center for Law & Economic Justice, March 2024, p. 7.
[2] Ibid, pp. 8-9.
[3] Angie Schmitt, “The Progress of Jaywalking Reform,” America Walks. June 19, 2022.
[4] Ibid.
