The state Department of Transportation intends to use existing revenue streams to dramatically scale up an automated camera system to ticket drivers who speed or run red lights — even though a bill proposed by state lawmakers to expand the system stalled out.
House Bill 697, introduced in January and backed by DOT, proposed $10 million in funding over the next two fiscal years to add and operate for a decade 160 cameras on Oahu, in Maui County, on Hawaii island and on Kauai. The bill also sought to broaden the authority for validating infractions from county police departments to DOT and the state Department of Law Enforcement.
But that roadblock has not deterred state DOT officials, who say they still plan to expand the program, which deployed 17 cameras at 10 Honolulu intersections for red-light enforcement in late 2022, followed by a public-awareness phase for speed enforcement that since March 14 has generated some 36,000 warnings.
State Transportation Director Ed Sniffen said speeding was a top contributing factor in motor vehicle fatalities over the past decade and that automated camera enforcement would deter speeders and reduce senseless deaths and injuries on Hawaii’s roadways.
DOT said it plans to use red-light funds and state highway funds to expand, operate and maintain the camera system over the next decade with a minimum of 20 cameras per year over eight years, or 160 additional cameras total. A vendor selected would be paid a monthly flat fee and not receive any revenue generated from citations.
DOT issued a request for proposals for such a contract March 20 and aims to receive best and final offers by June 2, followed by an anticipated contract award July 7.
The request seeks 100 additional cameras on Oahu and 20 each for the three neighbor island counties.
Intersections identified for the expansion are to be selected based on crash history, traffic volume and engineering analysis.
The current 17 cameras at 10 intersections are slated to continue operating in a warning phase for speed infractions at least through mid-September.
The legislation drew state Judiciary concerns that courts would be overwhelmed by adjudicating an expected massive volume of citations, while some members of the public opposed the bill.
Under existing state law governing camera-based speed enforcement, cita- tions may not be issued for exceeding the speed limit by less than 5 mph. Since the warning period began March 14, the system has been generating warnings for vehicles exceeding the posted speed limit by more than 11 mph, according to DOT.
From March 14 through April 30, there were 35,700 warnings generated, or about 744 per day on average, DOT reported. The agency also said that as of Tuesday, 17,000 to 20,000 warnings had yet to be mailed to registered vehicle owners.
Tommy Hanohano, a police officer for 31 years, told the House Finance Committee in written testimony for a Feb. 21 hearing that the cameras should be used only for red-light infractions and not speeding.
“We are already the #1 most costly state to live in,” Hanohano wrote. “We citizens do not need any more cost burdens on us. This is a pure money grab and does nothing to improve our roadways.”
Hanohano said DOT, based on preliminary tests for motorists exceeding the speed limit by over 5 mph, could generate $6.6 million weekly, “just for going a few miles above the speed limit,” he testified. “We all know that a few miles above the speed limit does not cause collisions and death.”
A state court administrator didn’t take a position on the merits of HB 697, but expressed concerns with the impact of DOT’s planned system expansion on court resources.
“The Judiciary is concerned about the effects the potential volume of citations will have on the district courts,” Michelle Acosta, deputy chief court administrator for the 1st Circuit District Court on Oahu, said in written testimony for a March 10 committee hearing on the bill. “A dramatic increase in traffic citations would overwhelm already overstretched court resources, potentially to the detriment of other types of cases heard by district court and could also result in the backlog of processing these citations.”
Sniffen has said DOT expects the number of infractions to go down after warning periods, though the agency also has calculated resource demands to be 30 times higher for speed violations than red-light violations. To manage this, the department sought a change to state law so that DOT and Department of Law Enforcement employees can assist with citation validation.
HB 697 proposed this change, along with the $10 million appropriation. A more recent draft also proposed to increase the legal threshold for issuing speeding tickets using a camera system to not less than 7 mph, up from 5 mph.
On April 25, House and Senate negotiators on a conference committee agreed to a compromise draft of the bill that would have appropriated $2 million and made the other changes. But the vote was taken about four minutes past a procedural deadline, so final votes by the House and Senate could not take place.
