Want safer streets? Stop blaming pedestrians for traffic violence

The Freedom to Walk report, recently published by Hawaiʻi Appleseed Center for Law & Economic Justice, found that between 2018-2023 in Hawaiʻi, police issued more than 30,000 jaywalking citations, an average of roughly 5,000 citations per year. By comparison, Washington State (population 7.7 million), only gives out about 400 to 500 jaywalking citations per year.

The Hawaiʻi Appleseed report also found that 78 percent of these jaywalking tickets are given in densely populated areas of Oʻahu. Within these areas, certain streets and intersections generate a disproportionately high number of jaywalking citations. For example, in 2018 an estimated 1,316 citations were given along Hotel Street alone (16 percent of the 2018 total).

Racial information was not obtained by the police for these jaywalking citations. However, data from other localities such as New York City, Jacksonville, and Sacramento where jaywalking enforcement was studied shows that jaywalking citations are given disproportionately to people of color.

While roadway safety is the justification given for jaywalking laws, even the staggeringly high number of jaywalking citations in certain locations do not appear to be linked to reduced traffic violence. While the Honolulu Department of Transportation Services identified some of the jaywalking hot spot locations as high injury locations in their Oʻahu Pedestrian Plan, others (mainly downtown/Chinatown and Waikiki) are safer for pedestrians than many other parts of the island.

Globally, the cities with the lowest traffic death rates do not have any jaywalking laws. And over the past few years, legislation to repeal or reform jaywalking laws has been enacted in Virginia, California, Nevada, Denver, Kansas City, and Anchorage. About 52 million Americans now live in places where jaywalking has been decriminalized in some form.

Preliminary data show that there has been little to no change in the number of traffic fatalities in these localities. However, the decriminalization of jaywalking and other minor traffic violations has helped to reduce financial burden on the justice system and has provided opportunities to redirect funds to more constructive traffic safety solutions.