It’s the beginning of the school year, which means more traffic — especially in and around school campuses.
Oʻahu lawmakers want to make those areas a little safer by slowing down cars nearby. A bill introduced at the Honolulu City Council would further reduce the speed limit on roads next to schools to 20 mph.
On Monday local officials and advocates spoke about Bill 44 near Kailua Elementary School, which borders the busy Kuʻulei Road.
Councilmember Tyler Dos Santos-Tam, the measure’s co-author, said the 20 mph speed limit would be implemented in other areas as well.
“ It'll also make the default for a school zone 20 mph and also make (it) the default for any street that doesn't have an existing speed limit. ... Right now the default is 25 mph,” he said.
“If you're in a lot of our neighborhood streets, the default's 25 mph, and when people speed in a 25 mph zone, they end up going a lot faster than they think — and that's very hazardous to kids and kūpuna and everybody else in the neighborhood,” he added.
Right now the 20 mph speed limit zone doesn’t exist in city law, so it isn’t used.
The bill is set to be heard on Wednesday.
