What’s in store for 2025: Hawaiʻi Appleseed transportation equity projects on the horizon
All residents—regardless of age, race, ethnicity, ability, or income—should be able to navigate their community safely using modes of transportation that promote healthy individuals and communities, including walking, rolling, and riding transit. Hawaiʻi Appleseed is seeking to help advance this purpose by increasing our capacity for research and advocacy around thoughtful and equitable transportation policy.
In 2024, Hawaiʻi Appleseed research demonstrated how decriminalizing jaywalking can shift precious public resources away from costly, ineffective and burdensome enforcement that disproportionately targets lower-income residents, toward investment in safe, accessible pedestrian transportation infrastructure. Appleseed also showed how, currently, state transportation funds are overwhelmingly spent on projects that increase vehicle travel, moving us in the wrong direction for both our transportation equity goals, as well as our clean energy and climate change mitigation goals.
In 2025, we’ll take a greater look at more equitable approaches to traffic enforcement, the impacts of parking mandates on affordable housing, and addressing the unique mobility challenges that women and their families face. The following transportation equity research products are nearing completion or in the works and will be released during the upcoming year.
Rethinking Traffic Enforcement
Under our current system of traffic enforcement, harsh penalties are meted out for minor offenses that pose little risk to public safety. There is growing recognition that this approach is ineffective at improving roadway safety. It can also lead to cycles of debt, damaging court records and, in some cases, violent interactions with police, arrests and incarceration.
To better understand these issues, our team is developing a policy report that highlights the prevalence of minor traffic violations in Hawaiʻi; how traffic enforcement is funded; the negative impacts of traffic enforcement; and includes recommendations for a more equitable approach to traffic enforcement. The policy report will be complemented by an interactive story map, which demonstrates the unequal enforcement of jaywalking laws and showcases the stories of those impacted by this uneven approach.
The work is supported by the Urban Catalyst Grant, provided by Urban Institute and the Microsoft Justice Reform Initiative. Look for it this winter.
Elevating the Impact of Parking Reform for Housing Affordability
Parking mandates can significantly increase the cost of housing construction, delaying development and further worsening the affordable housing crisis. In 2020, the City & County of Honolulu joined a growing list of cities taking steps to reduce its costly parking mandates. Under Ordinance 20-41, parking mandates have been eliminated for new development projects in areas well-serviced by transit on Oʻahu.
The Hawaiʻi Appleseed transportation equity and affordable housing teams got together to study the effectiveness of this policy in reducing housing costs; the barriers to reducing parking; and strategies to further the impact of Ordinance 20-41, such as parking maximums in transit-oriented development areas. Look for this report in the spring of 2025.
Improving Women’s Mobility
Women—particularly those with lower incomes—face unique challenges in accessing safe, affordable transportation options. With support from the Mobility, Access and Transportation Insecurity (MATI) program, our team will use travel surveys and listening sessions to understand the mobility challenges faced by women with low-incomes living in ʻEwa and Waipahu.
To carry out this research, we have partnered with the Hawaiʻi Public Health Institute and community health workers. The project will result in a plan for a community-shaped demonstration project to improve the transportation security of women with low-incomes and their families living in ʻEwa and Waipahu. Look for this project to be released in the summer of 2025.
