Fixing Hawai‘i’s Deadly Roads

Safety innovations – like artificial intelligence software, better designs, better brakes and driver-assistance systems – should make it safer for people inside and outside vehicles.

Instead, in many ways, America’s roads seem to be getting deadlier, especially for pedestrians. Consider these numbers:

• 7,508 pedestrians in the U.S. were struck and killed by vehicles in 2022 – the highest total since 1981, according to a report by the Governors Highway Safety Association.
• The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration said 42,939 people died in traffic crashes in 2021 – the most in a decade and a half. The death toll fell only slightly in 2022, to 42,514, and the fatality estimate for 2023 is 40,990.

State Department of Transportation Director Ed Sniffen says Hawai‘i is doing better than the nation as a whole. For example, in 2021 there were 1.37 fatalities per 100 million vehicle miles traveled across America, according to the nonprofit Insurance Institute for Highway Safety. Those deaths include people riding in all vehicles, including bicycles, as well as pedestrians. In comparison, Hawai‘i recorded 0.94 fatalities per 100 million vehicle miles traveled – 31% fewer than the national average.

The state’s five-year rolling average of traffic fatalities dropped from 106 in 2018 to 99 in 2023. The five-year rolling average is a better gauge of trends than annual traffic fatalities, because the annual number fluctuates from year to year.

Speed Continues to Kill

But that’s not to say Hawai‘i’s traffic numbers are good. Speeding has been a major contributing factor in almost half of Hawai‘i’s traffic deaths in recent years, with the actual percentage fluctuating from year to year. For example, in 2020, speed was a major factor in 44% of Hawai‘i’s traffic crashes involving fatalities. That was tied for the third-highest percentage among the states; South Carolina and Colorado had the highest rates at 46%, according to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration’s Speeding Traffic Safety Facts.

A few local fatalities have drawn special attention.

Last year, 16-year-old McKinley High School student Sara Yara was killed and another student injured by a hit-and-run driver while crossing with the light in a marked crosswalk along Kapi‘olani Boulevard. Mitchel Miyashiro, a 46-year-old driver with 164 prior traffic citations, allegedly sped away from the scene, but he later turned himself in to police. He has been charged with negligent homicide in the first degree and other offenses.

This speed hump on Kapi‘olani Boulevard – built after a student at nearby McKinley High School was killed by a hit-and-run driver – is one of 203 raised pedestrian crosswalks and speed humps in the state. Another 28 are currently being built. | Photo: Aaron Yoshino

In 2016, 19-year-old Kaulana Werner was killed in a hit-and-run crash in Nānākuli; the driver was accused of speeding and intoxication. It took a jury less than two hours to find Myisha Armitage, then 26, criminally responsible for Werner’s death.

Werner’s family was instrumental in advocating for the successful passage in 2018 of a state law called “Kaulana’s Bill” that allows courts to extend prison time for offenders convicted of first-degree negligent homicide who fail to render aid at the scene of an accident.

Sniffen says the state and counties try many things to reduce speeding and drunken driving, including campaigns that implore people “to take care of neighbors, families, friends and themselves.”

But the enforcement of laws is the most important motivator, he says. “I would say 80% of the people will follow the law or be pretty close to it,” says Sniffen. “There’s a 20% outlier that are just not, and they’re not going to do it unless there’s enforcement.”

Hawai‘i law describes excessive speeding as exceeding the speed limit by 30 mph or more, or going 80 mph or more regardless of the speed limit. Excessive speeding citations issued by law enforcement in Hawai‘i are totaled by fiscal year, which runs from each July 1 to June 30. Here are some recent totals:

• 2019: 357 citations
• 2020: 915
• 2021: 685
• 2022: 1,194

Distracted Driving Also Kills

Distracted driving is another top concern for DOT. The number of fatalities it causes is likely underreported, Sniffen says, because “we don’t know sometimes when a person died, whether or not they were distracted with the telephone.” From 2018 to 2022, 111 of the 520 traffic fatalities were known to be related to distracted driving. That’s 21.3% of the total.

In addition to using cell phones, distracted driving also involves things such as grooming, eating and drinking while driving.

Hawai‘i has state laws intended to reduce distracted driving, including a mobile electronic device law, implemented in 2013. In 2009, Honolulu was the first county in the state to pass an ordinance prohibiting people from using cell phones while driving. Using one while driving in Hawai‘i could result in a $297 citation; if a driver is caught using a mobile device in a school or construction zone, the citation is $347. Here are the number of recent statewide citations for distracted driving, which show a big decrease in recent years:

Sniffen says the state DOT places raised pedestrian crosswalks and roundabouts on certain roads to reduce speeding. For example, in the weeks after Sara Yara was killed, the DOT and Honolulu’s Department of Transportation Services installed two raised pedestrian crosswalks on Pensacola Street plus speed humps on Kapi‘olani Boulevard and a red-light camera – all near McKinley High School.

“These are reminders in different spots where I know there’s going to be conflicts between bicyclists, pedestrians and vehicles where I can slow you down,” says Sniffen, “so that if you do crash at a lower speed, the chances of everybody surviving … goes up.”

As of March, there are 203 raised pedestrian crosswalks and speed humps in the state, with another 28 currently being built, according to Sniffen. He says raised pedestrian crosswalks can cost between $50,000 and $150,000.

Red-Light Cameras

From 2015 to 2020, 1,879 crashes statewide were attributed to red-light and other traffic signal violations, according to the DOT. The state began installing red-light cameras in 2022.

The cameras are part of a two-year pilot project at 10 intersections on O‘ahu. Initially, they were only used to issue warnings to violators; since then, they’ve resulted in about 13,500 citations.

Today, the number of drivers running red lights at those 10 intersections is down 25% to 65%, depending on the intersection, according to Sniffen. The pilot project is expected to end in 2025 and he hopes to expand the use of cameras statewide.

The red-light cameras can also monitor speed. A similar speed enforcement bill has been proposed at the state Legislature and, if passed, would give DOT the power to cite people who speed past the cameras.

DOT is also launching a project this summer to upgrade 250 of O‘ahu’s state-owned traffic controllers to an automated system, says Sniffen. The current controllers have two base timings that gives drivers equal crossing time in each of the mainline directions. Sniffen says the controllers prioritizes “the mainline over the side streets,” but the upgraded ones will have sensors to measure the flow of drivers, bicyclists and pedestrians. That data can help determine how DOT can improve corridors where drivers are speeding and “get those speeds back down to what the safe speed should be in that area,” he says.

The new data will streamline analysis of heavy traffic and make it easier to identify mistimed lights. Sniffen says corridor studies usually take two weeks to three months, but the new system could bring it down to 20 minutes.

“We’re going in the right direction,” he says. “We think our speed mitigation is working really well, and we’re going to continue that and keep partnering with our education programs and enforcement.”

Bigger Vehicles Are Deadlier

It’s obvious that bigger vehicles are more dangerous to pedestrians, but what’s surprising is how much more deadly a small difference in size can make, according to several studies.

“Small increases in (weight in) the front end of vehicles dramatically increases the probability that a pedestrian dies,” says Justin Tyndall, an assistant professor of economics at UH Mānoa and part of the UH Economic Research Organization.

Tyndall has worked on numerous transportation studies about pedestrians and transit communities. A study released this year looked at how front-end vehicle heights relate to pedestrian deaths. Tyndall analyzed national data on 3,400 vehicle crashes in which pedestrians were struck and estimated the partial effects that front-end vehicle height had on the pedestrians’ survival rates.

He found that an increase of 10 centimeters (about 4 inches) in the front-end height of a vehicle contributes to a 22% increase in the chances that a pedestrian will die when hit by that vehicle.

“Larger vehicles are much more likely to hit the pedestrian in the head or the body rather than the legs and more likely to force them under the vehicle in a collision,” says Tyndall.

On average, according to Tyndall’s research, a pedestrian has a 9.1% chance of dying after being hit by a vehicle. But when the vehicle is a pickup truck or a full-size SUV, the rates climb to 11.9% and 12.4%, respectively.

Tyndall says past research also shows that larger vehicles create more blind spots for drivers.

Larger vehicles have surged in popularity. In 2021, 78% of new vehicles sold or leased in the U.S. were light trucks, a category that includes SUVs, pickups and vans, according to the federal Bureau of Transportation Statistics.

Tyndall says pedestrians would be safer if taxes or regulations were in place to discourage people from driving those kinds of larger vehicles.

“We could save a lot of pedestrian lives if we had some pretty modest regulations around vehicle designs that could protect pedestrians.”

Of course, a vehicle’s speed also plays a role in pedestrian fatalities. According to a 2011 study by the American Automobile Association, a pedestrian has a 10% chance of dying if struck by a car going 23 mph. That rises to 50% if the car is going 42 mph, and 75% at 50 mph.

Deadly to Walk

The number of pedestrians in the U.S. who were struck and killed by cars in 2022 was the highest in over 40 years, according to a report by the Governors Highway Safety Association, a nonprofit that represents states’ safety offices. About 7,508 people were killed while walking along U.S. roads that year; Hawai‘i accounted for 28 of those fatalities.

In Hawai‘i from 2010 to 2021, pedestrian and bicyclist deaths per year increased by an average of 9.5% and 0.6%, respectively, and overall traffic fatalities saw an average annual decrease of 0.4%, according to the DOT.

DOT data shows that a total of 36,564 traffic crashes occurred in Hawai‘i from 2017 to 2021. Of those, 2,736, or 7.5%, involved pedestrians and 137 resulted in deaths. Another 336 resulted in serious injuries.

In those five years, the number of crashes involving pedestrians declined, but the average severity of pedestrian injuries increased. Pedestrian deaths increased by 21% in that time and crashes leading to serious injuries among pedestrians rose by 11% on an average annual basis, according to the DOT.

On O‘ahu, the city’s Department of Transportation Services says that pedestrian deaths account for about a third of all traffic fatalities on the island.

Daniel Alexander, a transportation planner for DTS, says crashes involving pedestrians most commonly happen at uncontrolled crossings and intersections with traffic lights that allow left turns.

According to the O‘ahu Pedestrian Plan, 38 road corridors and 107 intersections/ crossings account for a disproportionate share of pedestrian injuries and fatalities. Alexander says 2% of city roads accounted for 60% of pedestrian deaths on O‘ahu.

A few of the areas receiving improvements that enhance pedestrian safety are Ke‘eaumoku Street between Wilder Avenue and Kapi‘olani Boulevard; North King Street; Dillingham Boulevard; and Kamehameha Highway in Kāne‘ohe between Ha‘ikū Road and Waikalua Road. The plan is available at tinyurl.com/PedestrianPlan2022.

The rise in total pedestrian deaths in Hawai‘i has disproportionately affected older adults, people of color and people with low incomes, says Keali‘i Lopez, state director for AARP Hawai‘i. Kūpuna 65 and older made up 17% of O‘ahu’s population in 2019. But, from 2015 to 2020, they represented 41% of all pedestrians killed in crashes, and 24% of all people killed while bicycling, according to DTS.

Another vulnerable community is Hawai‘i’s homeless population; the DOT started tracking pedestrian deaths among that group three years ago, according to Sniffen.

“The homeless population has been about a seventh of the fatalities that occur in the system,” he says. “That’s a big number.”

Sniffen says DOT is working with different state and city agencies to “ensure that we can understand the need that (homeless) people have for crossing in different areas.”

One deadly spot for the homeless is where Nimitz Highway connects to the H-1 Freeway.

“People should not be living on the DOT roadways. It’s just flat out dangerous,” says Sniffen. “But instead of just moving them, we’re trying to find different locations that they can go to.”

Bad Trend: More Scooter Deaths

Scooter deaths statewide have gone up in recent years: From 2003 to 2020, there were no more than two a year; some years had none. But there were 10 in 2021, eight in 2022 and five last year.

Scooters refer to various types of vehicles, some motorized and others not, including those with a narrow plank and small wheels front and back, commonly known as kick scooters or push scooters.

However, scooter can also refer to motorized two-wheelers with a step-through frame (think of the traditional frame of a girl’s bike) and other vehicles. All of the state’s legal definitions of scooter can be found at tinyurl.com/scooterrules.

Calls for More Infrastructure

Advocates and nonprofits have called for more infrastructure and facilities to protect pedestrians and bicyclists.

“When people can’t walk, bike and take transit in their communities when it makes sense, and that we force everybody to feel that the only way they can get around is in a car – we’re really doing a big disservice to our communities,” says Katie Rooney, director of transportation policy and programs for the nonprofit Ulupono Initiative.

Motorcycle crashes account for a disproportionate number of traffic fatalities, according to the DOT. In 2023, the 27 motorcycle-related fatalities, which include mopeds and scooters, accounted for 29% of all state traffic-related deaths. The DOT has also reported an increase in DUI and speeding citations issued to motorcycle drivers.

The nine bicyclist fatalities in 2023 were the most ever in Hawai‘i in a single year, the DOT says.

Alexander says the characteristics of bike-vehicle crashes are “kind of all over the place” but often involve bicyclists getting hit from behind, while pulling out of driveways or while making left turns.

“But the biggest trend we saw is that it’s mostly bicyclists not in bikeways, not in dedicated bikeways – so we’re there sharing space,” he says.

Honolulu Department of Transportation Services says the King Street Protected Bike Lane is an example of a successful infrastructure project that makes bicyclists safer. The project reduced the street from six motor-vehicle lanes to five, with a bike lane added on the mauka side.

That bike lane had a significant impact, DTS says. In the four years before the bikeway opened in 2014, 50 bicyclist injuries were reported along the 2-mile stretch from Alapa‘i Street to Isenberg Street. In the four years after the bike lane was set up, only 25 bicyclist injuries were reported.

Alexander says there are plans for the city to install additional protected bike lanes around Kaka‘ako and Waikīkī.

The city’s pedestrian plan notes that out of 1,227 miles of city streets, 57.4% have sidewalks on both sides, but 36.2% do not. Most of the remaining roads have asphalt or concrete walkways on one side or some trees along the way. The city proposes to add 145 miles of sidewalks, at an expected cost of $539 million.

Adding bikeways and walkways is difficult on narrow, older roads that are often in residential areas “where space is a consideration,” Rooney says. But, she adds, plenty of other roads are wide enough to accommodate more than just vehicular traffic.

“We also have a lot of wide, big roads in which it’s just mostly dedicated to vehicle space, and it doesn’t have to be,” she says. Sniffen says the difficulty with upgrading infrastructure is that “our system was built in a landlocked situation with very little room to address additional facilities.” But he says DOT has been partnering with state and city agencies to prioritize areas where critical infrastructure connections are missing, such as “discontinuous” sidewalks and roads.

Sniffen says trying to reduce speeding is DOT’s big focus right now.

“If we can manage everybody’s speed on the system, it’s way safer for everybody,” he says. “Impacts are lower, the potential for stopping to ensure that you avoid an impact is higher – so it’s just much safer altogether.”

Says Lopez: “The goal is to have safer streets, more aware and careful pedestrians. We want drivers who drive with aloha and pedestrians who walk with aloha.”