The House Committee on Transportation on March 14 voted to pass SB 2630 SD1 with amendments that narrow the bill’s focus to pedestrian behavior and replace informal “freedom to walk” language with wording consistent with existing Hawaii Revised Statutes for crossing at locations other than crosswalks.

The committee struck the bill’s preamble and removed section 3—which would have imposed a $100 minimum fine for speeding—because that section did not relate to pedestrians and raised potential title issues. The committee also replaced a clause about “immediate danger” with a more specific, objective standard: whether “a reasonably careful pedestrian would determine that doing so would result in a collision with a moving vehicle or result in the moving vehicle slowing or stopping in any fashion.” The amendment’s aim, the chair said, is to avoid criminalizing conduct where pedestrians do not interrupt traffic flow and to address concerns raised in public testimony.

Committee members raised concerns about how the bill would affect residents in unimproved or rural areas and whether the statute’s 200‑foot language is practical in urban downtown settings where crosswalks are typically closer together. The committee agreed to direct staff to include language in the committee report asking further study (not immediate statutory change) of the 200‑foot rule and how countdown signals and crosswalk timing should be treated.

Representative comments included a “no” vote from one member who said unimproved areas put pedestrians at risk; another member said they would vote with reservations and emphasized that infrastructure improvements may be necessary before changing legal standards. The committee’s action made the new penalty language permissive—the chair said the judiciary committee could revisit whether the penalty should be mandatory.

Formal action: the committee passed SB 2630 SD1 with amendments; the measure was adopted in committee and advanced with technical edits and a defective date of 07/01/3000 to allow later refinement.

Ending: The committee passed a narrowed, more objective pedestrian standard into the committee report while preserving room for further study of crosswalk spacing and signal timing.