Building a better path to success for Hawaiʻiʻs Keiki
Hawaiʻi’s 2025 legislature boosts safe routes to school and student transportation.
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.
During the 2025 legislative session, Hawaiʻi Appleseed worked with coalition partners to advance legislation aimed at improving access to safe and affordable transportation options. Of the 18 transportation bills for which Hawaiʻi Appleeseed advocated in support, four bills were passed by the legislature and have been sent to the governor for consideration. Keep reading to learn about our key victories, missed opportunities, and the ongoing need for legislative action.
Safe Routes to School
The biggest legislative win for transportation equity in 2025 was securing an increase in dedicated funding for the Safe Routes to School (SRTS) program.
The SRTS program funds the development of safe infrastructure that encourages active, multi-modal transportation options for keiki and their community within a 1-mile radius of schools. Projects could include crosswalk improvements, sidewalks, protected bike lanes, and educational programs for keiki who walk, bike, or roll to school.
The vast majority of Hawaiʻi residents live within 1 mile of a school, making this program one of the best ways to fund community transportation infrastructure improvements that specifically strengthen transportation equity.
Despite the importance of the SRTS program, it is severely underfunded. The current dedicated annual revenue source for the SRTS program is traffic violation surcharges, which generates roughly $500,000 per year in funding—a relatively small amount for capital improvements.
The legislature passed multiple bills to increase SRTS funds from a variety of sources:
House Bill (HB) 1231 would generate funds for the SRTS program by adding a $5 fee to annual vehicle registrations. Hawaiʻi Appleseed estimates that this bill could generate about $5 million annually for the SRTS program.
Senate Bill (SB) 1009 would establish a reserved parking space enforcement fine, and deposit a portion of those fines into the SRTS program.
SB1195 would prohibit vehicles from parking within 20 feet of crosswalks and intersections, and deposit fines into the SRTS program.
There are 292 schools statewide, and the SRTS Advisory Committee has identified over $800 million in potential funding needs. Bills to increase SRTS funding will therefore help to fill a critical gap in expanding safe transportation infrastructure for students. However, clearly much more is needed to address those needs.
Student Transportation Services
The legislature also approved HB862, a bill to improve student transportation services by allowing the use of motor-coaches, small buses and vans to transport students if school vehicles are unavailable or impractical due to economic factors.
Despite the Hawaiʻi Department of Education’s efforts to address its shortage of school bus drivers, the problem has persisted since the COVID-19 pandemic. Permanently offering alternative school bus options would help narrow the significant gap in meeting the transportation needs of students across the state.
Bills that Fell Short of Passing
While we celebrate the successes during the 2025 session, there were also a number of important transportation bills that ultimately did not pass.
SB1117 would have renamed and expanded the scope of the state’s existing Electric Bicycle and Electric Moped Rebate Program, increasing the rebate amount from $500 to $750. This rebate increase would have allowed the program to reach more residents with lower incomes to provide them with an opportunity to benefit from improved mobility options.
HB1260 would have established a Summer Street Pilot Program in each county, designed to temporarily transform car-congested roadways into vibrant spaces for outdoor fun and social interaction. The Kauaʻi Play Streets Program—once a pilot program that was established in the fall of 2022—is now a successful long-term, island-wide program that brings the benefits of outdoor activity and social interaction to families by putting streets to a wider, more holistic set of uses.
SB106 would have reduced enforcement of jaywalking laws by allowing individuals to cross outside of marked crosswalks when safe to do so. Despite more than 30,000 jaywalking tickets given out to adults across the state from 2018–2023, pedestrian deaths from vehicle collisions have not decreased. Instead, the heavy-handed enforcement approach has likely contributed to cost of living struggles for low-income households while actually costing taxpayers money due to a low fine collection rate. Only 12 percent of jaywalking fines were collected in 2023.
SB106 received a diverse range of support, from the American Civil Liberties Union to the Grassroots Institute, the Hawaiʻi Public Health Institute, the Hawaiʻi Bicycling League, the Hawaiʻi Department of Health, and many more.
What’s Next?
Hawaiʻi Appleseed is encouraged by the progress of transportation equity bills—especially the much-needed support for the Safe Routes to School program. Transportation equity impacts every single person in Hawaiʻi, touching our daily lives in numerous ways.
We all deserve to live in a Hawaiʻi where transportation is accessible, safe, healthy and convenient. Much more work is needed to achieve that goal, but the community and organizational support behind these bills gives us hope. We’re grateful for the continued collaboration with our partners and look forward to building on this momentum in the next legislative session.
