Cohort 2024
Hawai‘i Appleseed Center for Law and Economic Justice
Examining the Enforcement of Jaywalking Policies
Honolulu, HI
In its 2024 report Freedom to Walk (PDF), the Hawaiʻi Appleseed Center for Law and Economic Justice found that from 2018 to 2023, more than 30,000 jaywalking citations were issued in Hawaiʻi. Though police did not collect race and ethnicity data, national data indicate that people of color are disproportionately affected by jaywalking enforcement and that jaywalking enforcement is used as a pretext to stop pedestrians for unrelated concerns. National data also show a lack of evidence supporting the claim that jaywalking laws produce public safety results.
With Catalyst Grant funding, Hawaiʻi Appleseed will visualize how jaywalking policies are enforced in different Honolulu communities. It will also produce a policy report with recommendations for shifting public resources away from jaywalking enforcement and other nonserious traffic crimes and toward the building and maintaining of pedestrian infrastructure. To create the data visualization and policy report, Hawaiʻi Appleseed will conduct a demographic analysis of the local jaywalking citation data and map jaywalking citation hotspots on Oʻahu. It will also interview community members affected by jaywalking enforcement, with a focus on Native Hawaiians and Pacific Islanders, who are disproportionately represented in Hawai‘i’s criminal legal system (PDF). Findings from this study will support Hawaiʻi Appleseed and its community partners as they advocate for improved pedestrian infrastructure.
