Two City Council good bills to get involved on this January and a third terrible bill to keep an eye on for February.
Bill 59 – Parklets & Bike Corrals
Bill 59 CD 1 would allow bike corrals and parklets (tiny parks) to be installed in on-street parking spaces. Bike corrals are important for providing parking for lots of bikes in high demand areas (like in Downtown or anywhere you see a rack designed for 4 bikes that somehow has 9). Bike corrals are giving people a place to park their bikes in cities across the US. This bill is essential to bringing them to Oahu.
Parklets repurpose a parking space as a tiny park. In areas most in need, they create a place to sit down, enjoy the street, and re-think how we use our greatest public asset – our road right-of-ways.
Bill 59 CD1 is scheduled before the Transportation Committee Thursday 1/14/16 1:00pm. This is the bill’s 4th of 5 hearings to becoming law.
Bill 82Â –Â Bikeway Planning & Implementation
Bill 82 would require the City to develop a 5-year bikeway implementation plan and to conduct two public meetings for major bikeway projects (for reference 11 have occurred for King St). The bill was introduced by Councilmember Ozawa as a replacement for Bill 68 and represents a giant improvement. The bill largely mirrors what Seattle does. The 5-year plan and two public meetings will help make our bikeway planning and implementation more inclusive, transparent, and accountable in a way that should help get us the bikeway network we so need.
HBL submitted supporting testimony for Bill 82’s first reading in December with request for a couple minor changes (read it here). We intend to support the bill moving forward with the minor amendments.
Bill 82 is scheduled before the Transportation Committee Thursday 1/14/16 1:00pm. This is the bill’s 2nd of 5 hearings to becoming law.
Bill 84 – BAD bill to watch for February
Bill 84 is BAD. It would essentially REPEAL the fundamental part of our landmark Complete Streets law – that every project should take every opportunity to make a street safer for walking, biking, and driving.
In 2012, the City Council unanimously passed Bill 26 making it policy of the City to strive to make all of streets safe walking, biking, and driving. At the core of the Complete Streets policy was that âevery transportation facility or project, whether new construction, reconstruction, or maintenance, provides the opportunity to implement complete streets policy and principlesâ. This is crucial to making our roads safe for all users in timely and cost efficient manner. Bill 84 would remove this fundamental Complete Streets approach for many of our roads by saying that we will NOT consider Complete Streets on any project unless the Complete Streets improvement is expressly noted in the budget.
Bill passed first reading in December and has been referred to the Committee on Budget. It is not currently scheduled for a hearing. So no testimony is current being accepted. It may be scheduled as early as February 10. We’ll have an update when more information is available.
Get Involved
Submitting written testimony is simple and makes a big difference in showing councilmembers support/opposition. Note that a bill must have scheduled hearing to testify on it.Â
- Go to www.honolulu.gov/ccl-
testimony-form.html?view=form - Enter:
- Personal info
- Date – hearing date
- Council/PH Committee – this is included in hearing agenda
- Agenda Item -this is included in hearing agenda, put the bill number is brackets
- Your position on the matter –Â support, oppose, or comments
- Representing –Â self, unless your speaking on behalf of organization
- Written testimony – speak in your own words, those are the most powerful
- Submit!
Call your councilmember. Written word is great, but a call to your councilmember personalizes it. Click here for district map and phone numbers.
Join the Bike Advocacy Team. This will ensure you receives email on how you can be involved in important bicycle issues. Click here to join.Â