For a healthier, happier Hawaiʻi, transportation spending must prioritize bicycle and pedestrian infrastructure

Hawaiʻi’s transportation system faces significant challenges, from increasing traffic congestion to the rising public costs of roadway maintenance. While the government and media has often overlooked the need for pedestrian and bicycle projects, investments in this infrastructure is essential to meeting Hawaiʻi’s environmental and public health goals. 

“Rethinking Roads,” a 2024 policy report from Hawaiʻi Appleseed, analyzes the state’s current transportation budget, and recommends ways to use transportation funds to meet the mobility needs of Hawaiʻi’s entire population, not just drivers.

Over half of the state’s capital improvement program (CIP) budget goes to funding transportation infrastructure projects. In Fiscal Year (FY) 2025 alone, nearly $2.6 billion of the state’s CIP funds were allocated to the Hawaiʻi State Department of Transportation (HDOT). Between FY19 and FY24, Hawaiʻi Appleseed analysis shows a staggering 66.3 percent of HDOT’s CIP budget was allocated to expanding vehicle travel through projects like road widening and new lanes. In contrast, only 1.5 percent of the budget was dedicated to projects that reduce vehicle travel, such as pedestrian and bicycle infrastructure. 

This imbalance perpetuates the very problems that the transportation system is meant to solve—congestion, pollution, and traffic-related injuries and deaths. Based on national data, roughly 30 percent of the population does not drive. That includes keiki, kūpuna and individuals with disabilities. The lack of investment in alternatives to driving fails to meet the mobility needs of those who rely on walking, biking, or public transit, and can have downstream impacts to their economic and social wellbeing. 

Rethinking Rising Vehicle Travel

Reducing vehicle travel has been shown to improve air quality, reduce greenhouse gas emissions, lower traffic congestion, and enhance public safety—benefits that all Hawaiʻi residents would enjoy. Unfortunately, because of continued investments in automobile infrastructure, vehicle travel in Hawaiʻi has increased by almost 40 percent over the last 25 years, and is anticipated to grow unless our state’s transportation policy is changed. This is particularly concerning given the state’s climate and energy goals. According to the Hawaiʻi Climate Commission, to achieve Hawaiʻi’s negative carbon emissions goal by 2045, vehicle travel cannot continue to grow.

In 2024, Hawaiʻi made landmark legal strides with Navahine v. Hawaiʻi Department of Transportation, the world’s first youth-led constitutional climate case addressing climate pollution from the transportation sector. The case was first brought forward in June 2022 by 13 youth from across Hawaiʻi who sued HDOT and its director, as well as the state and governor, arguing that the transportation sector’s high levels of climate pollution contribute to dangerous climate change in violation of rights protected under Hawaiʻi’s state constitution. 

Parties to the lawsuit came to an agreement in June, 2024. The settlement requires HDOT to:

• Take steps to establish a green house gas (GHG) emissions reduction plan. 

• Create a unit and positions within HDOT to take the lead on coordinating the mission of GHG reduction. 

• Establish a youth council to advise on HDOT’s commitments. 

• Develop interim targets for reducing vehicle travel, and a new methodology for assessing each infrastructure project’s GHG emissions and vehicle travel impacts.

• Make investments in clean transportation infrastructure, including dedicating a minimum of $40 million to expanding the electric vehicle charging network by 2030 and completing the pedestrian, bicycle and transit network in 5 years. 

The task of completing the state’s pedestrian, bicycle and transit network within 5 years is significant and will require significant investments. This need is underscored by the Hawaiʻi Climate Commission, which recently identified nearly $1 billion in high-priority pedestrian, bicycle and multimodal projects across the state (including both county and state projects) that are currently unfunded. On Oʻahu alone, implementing the state’s share of bike facilities will cost $168 million.

As such, the “Rethinking Roads” report recommends increasing investment in the Safe Routes to School (SRTS) program fund, one of the few state funding sources that supports pedestrian and bike education and infrastructure projects. In 2023, the legislature made a one-time allocation of $20 million into this fund for FY24 and FY25 ($10 million each year), however the SRTS typically relies on traffic violation surcharges for its revenue, and is normally severely underfunded (about $500,000 per year since FY20). 

A consistent revenue source that can deliver adequate funding for the SRTS program is needed. A number of bills currently in front of the governor—including House Bill 1231, Senate Bill 1195, and Senate Bill 1009—would do just that. Should these bills be signed into law, Hawaiʻi Appleseed estimates that these measures could generate about $5 million each year for the SRTS program.

Investing in the SRTS fund is a critical step in transforming our transportation system to meet the needs of all residents—pedestrians, cyclists and drivers alike. Click here to learn more about the SRTS program.