A section meeting was held on Wednesday, October 30, 2019 at the Frank Fasi Municipal Building. 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. International Director Cathy Leong shared details on the Resume Review Workshop student outreach event that was held at the University of Hawaii (UH) at Manoa. She also reminded everyone that the ITE Hawaii Section with WTS will be hosting a STEM event, The Mitey Rice Challenge, on November 9, 2019 and will include both UH and local high school students. Cathy also provided district and international level updates and announcements including:
- The student chapter at UH may apply for a data collection grant.
- The next joint Western and Mountain District Meeting will be in Honolulu June 28 – July 1, 2020. Abstracts are currently being accepted until December 20, 2019. Cathy reported that over half of the exhibit booths have been sold and the top sponsorships have also been filled.
- The next International ITE Meeting with be joint with the Southern District in New Orleans next August.
Cathy was followed by Legislative Committee Chairperson Wayne Yoshioka with a status update of the recent legislative measures including the postponement of expanding the Restricted Parking Zone Program in Kalihi and Halawa, approval of updating the language of Bill 53 to include mopeds, introduction of a measure to provide free bus passes for school-aged children, and a proposed TIP amendment to allow the City & County of Honolulu to purchase more buses.
After the announcements, Kelly Akasaki went on to introduce the first guest speaker, Melissa May White who is a senior planner with SSFM International in Honolulu, Hawaii. Melissa’s presentation highlighted key takeaways from a panel discussion she facilitated in August 2019 that explored the evolving landscape of micromobility and its integration into cities. Five cities, Portland, OR, San Francisco, CA, Spokane, WA, Minneapolis, MN, and Seattle, WA participated in this panel discussion. Melissa began her presentation with a brief history of micromobility from smart docking stations to dock-less systems, and most recently electronic bikes and scooters. Melissa identified some key strategies and lessons learned in the roll out of micromobility systems in these cities including develop an overall plan, establish policies and regulations, provide dedicated facilities for parking and operations/travel, and have both providers and cities participate in public education and outreach events. Melissa ended with highlighting some of the challenges that micromobility systems face including short lifecycles and transit integration.
After Melisa’s presentation, Kelly introduced the second guest speaker, Dre Kalili who is an executive assistant at the Department of Transportation Services and advises on policy, legislative strategy, and business development. Dre’s presentation focused on Bill 44 which aims to set a framework to manage shared micromobility in Honolulu. Dre outlined the nearly three (3) month long process that involved background research, a survey of 14 cities, drafting the bill, meeting with committees, and hearing public testimony. At the time of the meeting, approval of Bill 44 had been postponed until the next meeting scheduled in November. Dre also highlighted the key goals/outcomes of this bill, which included 1) providing a definition for a shared micromobility vehicle – short-term rental of vehicle l00 pounds or less, 2) charge all shared mobility providers the same amount for use of a city-owned parking stall, 3) add registration requirements for scooters, and 4) ensure the bill is flexible for new devices that may be proposed in the future.
After both presentations, Jennylyn announced that the next meeting will be held in February 2020.
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