A section meeting was held on Wednesday, February 19, 2020 at the Wilson Okamoto Corporation Conference Room.
President Jennylyn Tapat welcomed everyone to the meeting and asked everyone to introduce themselves. Following the introductions, Jennylyn asked the committee chairpersons to provide any new updates from the committees.
Legislative Committee Chairperson Wayne Yoshioka began with a status update of the recent legislative measures including bills related to red light running cameras, automatic camera speed enforcement, and vision zero. One (1) bill related to red light running cameras that was recently adopted by the Hawaii State House of Representatives and has been forwarded on to the Finance Department for review. There has been no recent activity with the automatic camera speed enforcement bill or the two (2) vision zero bills.
Wayne was followed by, International Director Cathy Leong, who reminded everyone that the next joint Western and Mountain District Meeting will be in Honolulu June 28 – July 1, 2020. The technical program was just approved and speakers will be notified by the end of the week. Cathy also announced that the City and County of Honolulu and State of Hawaii are working together to put on a Shift Event that will begin in the afternoon of July 1, 2020, immediately following the joint ITE meeting. ITE members will be given more information about a potential discounted registration for this event. Lastly, Cathy reminded everyone that the next International ITE Meeting will be held in New Orleans this August.
Cathy went on to introduce the first guest speaker, Peter Koonce, Division Manager, Signals & Street Lighting Division at City of Portland, OR. Peter’s presentation focused on “Street Design Principles to Advance Vison Zero”. First, Peter identified Portland’s 20-year vision, which was to increase the walking, biking, and transit mode shares while decreasing the single-occupancy vehicle share. The City of Portland developed a transportation hierarchy where pedestrians and bicyclist are prioritized over motor vehicles, when appropriate. This was accomplished through policy changes and reallocating curb-to-curb space for non-motor vehicle modes, such as replacing a vehicle travel lane with a bus-only lane. Policy changes include shifting the performance measures from auto-centric vehicle delay standards to person delay standards. Peter also stressed the importance of complete networks versus complete streets.
Peter concluded his presentation with questions from the audience. During the Q&A session, Peter reported that Portland has not seen a shift in mode split since 2009, which is largely due to the lack of funding. Peter also reported that Portland has been installing/planning to install beacons at various locations to help improve safety and on average spend about $5 million per year on these safety improvements. Using data to show the benefits of these improvements will help the program continue to receive and hopefully increase funding.
After Peter’s presentation, Michelle Agustin, Student Chapter liaison announced that next student outreach event will be held on Monday, February 24, 2020 at University of Hawaii at Manoa, Holmes Hall. ITE Hawaii Section has organized professionals to come and help prepare students for the upcoming career fair.
After Michelle’s update, Jennylyn announced that the next meeting will be held in March 2020 at the HDOT building.
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