Council Meeting - Regular Meeting

Good morning. Will the Committee on Infrastructure, Transportation, and Technology please come to order? It is Wednesday, July 15, at 9.01 AM. And I would like to welcome our committee members. We have Committee Vice Chair Okimoto, Committee Member Tupola, and Committee Member Weyer. And Committee Member Dos Santos Tam will be joining us shortly. Pursuant to section 92-3.7, the Hawaii Revised Statutes, this meeting will be conducted as a remote meeting by Interactive Conference Technology with the following procedures in effect for the meeting. Members of the public will be allowed to provide oral testimony on all items on the agenda remotely and in person in the council chamber when each agenda item is taken up. As both English and Hawaiian are official languages of the state of Hawaii, pursuant to Article 15, Section 4 of the Hawaii State Constitution and HRS Section 1-13, members of the public may testify in either language. For oral testimonies offered in Olelo, Hawaii, additional time, as may be necessary, will be allowed for the testifier to provide an English translation of their testimony. Before testifying, each person shall state their name. Each speaker may not have anyone else read their statement and is limited to a one-minute presentation on each item. Any persons who have registered to testify remotely by video conference or phone will be called upon first. When your name is called, please monitor your screen and activate your audio feed when prompted. I will then get to persons who have not registered an opportunity to offer testimony. Please then utilize the raise hand feature on Zoom to be called upon. For those who are joining us by telephone only, please press star nine to indicate your desire to speak and I will then identify you by the last three digits of your phone number. When your phone number is called, please press star six to unmute yourself when prompted. Some friendly reminders and tips. Video conference from a quiet location if possible. If you're also watching the proceedings on Olelo, please mute your television at the time you are called to testify. When the timer on the screen reaches zero, please conclude your remarks promptly. Once all the remote testifiers have testified, I'll proceed to in-person testimony in the council chamber. Persons who have not registered will be given an opportunity to speak following the oral testimonies of the registered speakers. H.R.S. Section 92, that's three points. It requires all votes at remote meetings to be conducted by a roll call unless unanimous. Therefore, I first call for objections, and if there are any, I will call for a roll call vote. For those council members participating from outside of the council chamber, In accordance with HRS section 92.3.7, the meeting will automatically recess if we lose audio-visual contact with you and cannot reconvene until we reestablish contact. Therefore, please announce beforehand if you will be voluntarily signing out of the meeting. For written testimonies, the... Testifier's address, email address, and phone number will be available to the public as described on the posted agenda. As a courtesy, please silence or turn off your cell phones. Moving to agenda item number one, we have for action Bill 35-2026 relating to streets, sidewalks, malls, and other public places. Before we go to, I don't think we have any from the same administration, but it is introduced by Committee Member DeSantis Tam. I would also like to welcome Committee A committee member does not just tap to the chamber. I would like to defer to the introducer first.

Thank you, Chair. This bill's a fairly straightforward cleanup bill. It removes provisions about permitting of something called sidewalk tellers, which, frankly, we should have gotten rid of in Bill 6 of last year, except nobody knew what a sidewalk teller was. As it turns out, it was a technology that was briefly used in the 1950s when they wanted to make banking a little bit more convenient. They set up these kiosk things on the sidewalks. which were connected to vacuum tubes so the tellers could sit in the kiosk, send things via vacuum tube back to the main branch inside across the sidewalk. To our knowledge, none were ever built in Honolulu, although in the 1980s they did contemplate building one at the new Central Pacific Bank Tower, but obviously that was never actually constructed as part of the Central Pacific Bank Tower. Anyway, it's high time that we Yeah, remove this. I will note, I am glad that in the 1950s, Honolulu was forward thinking enough to think about how to permit a new technology back then. Obviously it's no longer new and frankly was never used, but here we are.

Thank you, Committee Member Dos Santos-Tam. I don't have any one from the city administration, but I do recall there was some brief discussion, but members, I will go to testimony. We don't have any registered remote testimony or in-person testimony, but is there anyone online or in-person who wishes to testify? Seeing none, members, we are back in discussion. Back in discussion. Okay. Seeing none, the chair recommends that Bill 35-2026 be reported out for passage on third reading. Any discussion? Any objections? Reservations? Hearing none, so ordered. Moving forward to agenda item two, we have Bill 41 relating to transportation. Members, there's a posted proposed CD1 of the version of the bill identified as OCS 2026-0419-0194 forward slash 7 forward slash 2026 119 PM submitted by Council Member Dos Santos-Tam. For your information, a summary of the amendments are listed on the agenda. I know that we did have discussion about this last committee and last month with different input from the Department of Transportation Services as well as the Hawaii Bicycling League. I will defer to Council Member Dos Santos-Cham if you want to further explain your CD1, but it is posted on the agenda as well.

No, thank you, Chair. The posted CD1 makes a number of recommendations from both the Hawaii Bicycling League as well as the Department of Transportation Services. Again, the purpose of this bill is to align our regulations with the newly passed state law, which I understand the governor is expected to sign later today. One of the things that has come up constantly from the public in their frustrations about e-bikes is, well, why isn't there more enforcement? Why can't we just enforce the laws that we have? Well, the answer is that our state laws and our county laws are often disjointed. And with this bill, we're trying to align them so it's much easier for an HPD officer to say this is both against state law and county law and there's no wiggle room in between.

Thank you very much. Members, I do also have a hand-carried proposed CD1. It doesn't make substantive changes to the CD1 that was proposed and posted by Council Member Dos Santos-Tam. It is identified as OCS 2026-0449, forward slash 7, forward slash 14, forward slash 2026 at 3.33 p.m. Submitted by myself. You'll see it on your on your desk as well, but I do have to read it, so please bear with me. The City 1 does make the following amendments. In Section 4 of the bill, it amends the definition of motor by adding the term motor-driven cycle. It adds a new Section 5 of the bill to make conforming amendments to ROH Section 15-6.7 regarding electric foot scooters and electric micromobility devices within bikeways, renumbers subsequent sections accordingly. In renumbered Section 6 of the bill, which was formerly Section 5, it revives ROH Section 15-1311C to prohibit a person from one parking a moped in a bicycle rack located on a sidewalk unless signage still permits, or two, driving the moped on a sidewalk in violation of our HRS section 29, 291C-196C, removes section eight, which adds a new section to chapter 15, article 18, entitled Writing on Bikeways, to section 13 to conform to drafting style conventions and renumbers subsequent sections accordingly. In renumbered Section 8 of the bill, formerly Section 7, it deletes the proposed language in Section 15-18.7 and restores the existing language of ROH Section 15-18.7 with non-substantive revisions. It deletes the proposed language in ROH Section 15-18.7 and replaces it with the following. except where prohibited pursuant to subsections A and B, a person may ride a bicycle, including a class one, class two, or class three electric bicycle upon a sidewalk provided that the speed of travel does not exceed 10 miles per hour. The person yields the right of way to pedestrians and the person gives an audible signal before overtaking or passing any pedestrian. And in section nine, amends ROH Section 15-10A20 to repeal the prohibition against possessing intoxicating beverages within the limits of bicycle paths and their respective easements and section 10 of the bill substitutes all of the proposed language in ROH section 15-18.11, sections A through D, and replaces it with the following. The operation of electric bicycles is governed by HRS subsection 29C, 291C143 and 291C143.5 and all other applicable law. In renumbered section 13, formally section 8, in proposed new ROH section 15-18, riding on bikeways, revises the proposed language in subsection A to clarify that the exceptions referenced in HRI section 291C123 are Only those that are numbered and do not include mopeds and deletes the proposed language in subsection C and replaces it with the following. For purposes of this section, electric motorcycle means a two or three wheeled vehicle equipped with an electric motor capable of exceeding a speed of 28 miles per hour on level ground that may be legally operated on public roadways under the same licensing, registration, and insurance requirements applicable to motorcycles under state law. adds a proposed new ROA section 15-18, unauthorized upgrade or alteration of electric bicycles or electric foot scooters that would prohibit upgrades or alterations to electric bicycles or electric foot scooters that would allow the vehicle to exceed its speed or power maximums as established in state law. adds a new Section 19 to add a proposed new ROA to Section 15-19, Electric System and Battery Compliance for Electric Bicycles, Electric Foot Scooters, and Electric Micromobility Devices that would establish electric system and battery compliance regulations for electric bicycles, electric foot scooters, and electric micromobility devices, and numbers subsequent sections accordingly, and makes miscellaneous technical non-substantive amendments. With that, we will now move to testimony. We don't have any registered remote testifiers, but we do have a registered in-person testifier. We have Eduardo Hernandez from Hawaii Bicycling League joining us in the chamber today. Good morning.

Good morning, Chair, Vice Chair, members of the committee. My name is Eduardo Hernandez. I'm with the Hawaii Bicycling League. We represent more than 1,000 dues-paying members across Oahu and the state of Hawaii and across the world, actually. I want to thank Councilmember Dos Santos-Tam and Councilmember Tuba for your introduction. I haven't had a chance to read the latest addition in full, but I suspect we're generally in support of that. Everything that we do to make bicycling safer in our city builds on our city charter, which has a clause to make our city more bicycle and pedestrian friendly. I would like to point out this at the state level, as Councilmember Dos Santos-Tam noted, the governor is planning to sign HP 2021 today. And we have already at Hawaii Bicycling League, we held a webinar last night. We have a wealth of resources on our website that describe what is and isn't allowed as an e-bike. And also finally, before I close, we have two upcoming events. where we are going to be distributing free helmets, especially for Keiki. It's going to be at Sheridan Park this Saturday from 11 to 2. It's open to the public, so we want to get helmets for Keiki, and also later this month at Wyke Kelly Premium Outlets as part of their Summer Fun Day. We're working at Sheridan Park with HPD and at Wyke Kelly with the outlet. So thank you. Hope to see you there. And finally, if anyone has never had the opportunity to ride an e-bike, please reach out to our office. We have a fleet of them provided by H-DOT, and we would love to give you an audit either in your district or around City Hall so that you know what an e-bike feels like if you haven't been on one. Thank you very much.

Thank you, Mr. Hernandez. Are there any questions for the testifier? I really appreciate the information, not just the testimony, but also your outreach and education events, and definitely for offering us information and how it feels like to be on an e-bike. I know that one of my shared districts with council members Okimoto and Weyer, they're going to start training on e-bikes too for HVD. So that's really going to be Interesting. Anyway, seeing there be no further questions, thank you very much. Is there anyone else online or in person who wishes to testify? Seeing none, I know that. Oh, okay. We have Tony Valdez from the Department of Transportation Service. Good morning, Chair, Vice Chair. Tony Valdez, Department of Transportation Services.

Thank you for providing the language ahead of time. The chair, I mean, the director had concerns with the use of the word upgraded and suggest that maybe modified is a better term that's used in state statute. Upgraded seems to imply that it's going up stronger or higher. It's not necessarily that case. So we would suggest it be modified instead of upgraded. Understood. Also, there was a concern about who would perform the reclassification. There doesn't seem to be any stated authority in terms of when something is reclassified, who would make that determination. So there was a concern about how that would be done. And then the other thing was whether we have the right to get into commerce, where we can regulate commerce. It'd be difficult to regulate online sales for equipment to upgrade or modify. an electric bike. So we would ask CORE to chime in on that. We were hoping to get their opinion of that, whether we can actually prohibit or regulate that area.

Thank you. Members, are there questions for the testifier? Okay. Council Member Tupola.

Thank you so much for your thoughts. I think on that last part, on the ledge side, they decided to do 120-day implementation, meaning that it was going to be in 120 days that commerce or their side would have to start to do the labeling correctly. So kind of putting the onus on the bike companies. Yeah. So specifically it said the signage point of sale disclosure section requirement for manufacturers and distributors will take place delayed 120 days. And I think they gave out like a pamphlet to each of the, I just wanted to bring that up just so that we don't, feel like we need to do that because they did discuss that on what their responsibility would be as far as people selling the e-bikes and distributing them so that it's clear that these are the laws, what the speed is, and what the classification of the bike is. But I just wanted to share that.

Okay, thank you.

Yeah, thank you, Chair.

Thank you, members. If there's no further questions for the department, we are in discussion. Okay, Council Member Tupola.

I just want to shout out, I know he's probably watching, my area legislator, because he helped pass the bill on the e-bike, so thank you, Representative Kila. for your hard work on this. And thank you, Council Member Dos Santos-Tam, for doing the alignment with the city. And then, of course, I know that Council Member Tova is being very active out in Ewa, trying to do a lot of trainings and working with all the schools. So I know that it's in many areas, but some of the most, the largest effects of e-bikes and accidents has happened in the Ewa west side area. So just wanted to thank all of those involved. I'm very grateful. And actually, a lot of the schools and families in my district are very grateful.

Mahalo. Next, we have Councilmember DeSantis Tam.

Thank you, Chair. Again, strong support of this bill. I think that it's needed. I wish that the state had been able to pass the bill from last year and get that into law. I know there was a technical issue. But here we are, and hopefully this helps to move things forward. I think with regard to the issue of whether the city can get involved with commerce, the city has a number of prohibitions on the sale of various things, certain showerheads and toilets and herbal cigarettes and pepper sprays for self-defense and then polystyrene foamware and utensils and things like that. So I think there's a number of examples where there is a legitimate government interest in this, and I think that I feel confident that that would stand up in court if it were ever challenged, but hopefully nobody ever challenges it because everybody follows the laws as written.

Mahalo, Council Member DeSantis, TAM, members. As for my hand-carried CD1, I just want to note that it further increases the safety issue, but I do want to note the concern that Mr. Valdez from the Department of Transportation Services did bring up and relates to the wording of upgrades. So if I could... I could make a verbal amendment to the hand-carried CD1 from where it lists upgrades to modified members if there are any discussion or concerns about that. Seeing none, Introducer of the Bill, Council Member DeSantis, Tam. Okay. With that, let me see here. Members, the Chair recommends that Bill 41 be amended to the hand-carried CD1 and further amended to my verbal amendment of replacing upgrade with modified, identified as OCS 2026-0449, forward slash seven, forward slash 14, forward slash 2026 at 3.33 p.m. Are there any discussions? Any objections? Any reservations? The resolution has been amended to a CD1 as verbally amended as well. The chair then recommends that Bill 41, 2026 CD1 be report out for passage on third reading. Any discussion? I do want to echo the sentiments of our Council Vice Chair Tupola as well. So mahalo, Council Member Dos Santos-Tam. Any objections? Any reservations? Hearing none, so ordered. With that, oh, we are out, okay. There being no further business, this meeting is adjourned at 9.23 p.m.