In Hawai’i and across the US, the status quo is killing us. Traffic violence is consistently among the top causes of preventable death, and vulnerable users- people walking, bicycling and using personal mobility aids- are paying the highest price. It’s time for a SHIFT in our vision, our values, and our streets.

The Hawaii Bicycling League (HBL), with support from the Hawaii State Department of Health, Chronic Disease Prevention and Health Promotion Division (DoH) is proud to announce an exciting statewide conference: 

Safety and Health in Focus for Transportation (SHIFT) Summit 2020

The SHIFT Summit is a one-day event scheduled for Wednesday, July 1, 2020 at the Hilton Hawaiian Village in Honolulu. 

THEME: “It’s time for a SHIFT” 

With Vision Zero emerging as a key transportation safety principle at the state and county levels in Hawaii, SHIFT will focus on its central tenet: the status quo is unsustainable and unacceptable. To that end, our theme is how to make a SHIFT? What “best practices” are being reconsidered? How are communities and institutions preparing for and managing change? How is success being measured? 

GOALS: 

• Increase public understanding of the scope of the transportation safety challenge, the consequences of inaction and the importance of public champions and leadership
• Develop shared language, values, goals, and data around Vision Zero
• Increase cooperation and collaboration among public health and transportation professionals and other sectors to advance healthy, safe and accessible neighborhoods that prioritize active mobility.
• Increase policymaker awareness of and commitment to Vision Zero best practices

BACKGROUND:

The impetus for SHIFT was City & County of Honolulu Resolution 19-32 “REQUESTING THE CITY ADMINISTRATION TO WORK WITH THE CITY COUNCIL TO ORGANIZE A PEDESTRIAN SAFETY CONFERENCE” which was itself a response to the troubling trend in pedestrian road fatalities in the US and here in Honolulu. Additionally, over the past year a state law and a number of county efforts have emerged to promote Vision Zero and the Safe Systems approach. This shift in addressing traffic safety prioritizes systemic measures that use data and community engagement to promote safer, healthier, and more resilient transportation systems.

CALL FOR PRESENTATIONS

TOPICS OF INTEREST:

• Interactive case studies: Share innovative plans or sticky challenges with peers
• Youth-, Senior- and Disability-focused safe streets efforts 
• Change stewardship: Change is hard, and shifting the status quo can be uncomfortable: we are looking for strategies for and examples of navigating critical conversations.
• Building a sustainable, impactful transportation safety coalition and taskforce. For everything to be on the table, everyone has to be at the table. Share your stories of successful transportation safety taskforces, and developing shared language, goals, and vision across disciplines. 
• Emerging practices for data management: how to aggregate, share, analyze, and employ data creatively and rigorously to “focus on what works.”
• Education: How can the movement for safe streets work with media and communications professionals towards more responsible and critical narratives around traffic violence?
• Cultural Competence and Equity: What does an equitable Vision Zero plan, a plan that recognizes and addresses the ways identity and culture inform vulnerability and barriers to mobility look like in Hawaii? 
• The Families for Safe Streets Model: Supporting survivors and families as agents of change 
• Policy: success stories, and developing policymaker awareness and commitment to Vision Zero best practices 
• Enforcement: how to align enforcement priorities and tactics with Vision Zero
• Engagement: fostering public understanding and engagement in safer, healthier transportation,  the consequences of inaction and the importance of public champions and interdisciplinary leadership

 The SHIFT Summit will convene at the Hilton Hawaiian Village immediately following the Institute of Transportation Engineers (ITE) Western & Mountain Districts Annual Meeting (June 28-July 1, 2020)

The afternoon portion of the SHIFT Summit will focus on “practitioners” including engineers, planners, public health professionals, transportation nonprofit leaders, academics and policymakers. This portion will have a registration fee. The evening session will be open and free to the public and will focus on engaging community leaders and influencers in adjacent sectors, such as education, social services, community and grassroots leaders, neighborhood board members, and others.