Rep. Joe Bertram of Maui would like to see Hawaii communities be redeveloped into pedestrian friendly communities that give residents the choice to get out of their cars. The issue here, Bertram says, is that for over 50 years the design concept in Hawaii has been around cars and not people. Traffic engineers have debated the infrastructure of Hawaii's transportation system with a mindset of moving cars around to get them to their destinations. Transportation and community infrastructure should be about the people, according to Bertram. He advocates that we must start doing something now. Communities need to get involved and to start attending neighborhood board meetings on sustainability.
People need choices, Bertram said. A few of those choices can be safe bicycle and pedestrian paths that link people to businesses, homes, parks and work places.
Rep. Bertram has plans to introduce bills next legislative session that will help create transit-oriented developments that are designed around walking and biking.
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