Equity in Transportation Safety and Preliminary Assessment in Hawaii

Abstract

The Center for Safety Equity in Transportation (CSET) is a collaboration between the universities of Hawaii, Alaska, Idaho and Washington, and their research focus is on transportation safety equity for rural, isolated, tribal and indigenous communities (RITI communities). CSET’s goal is to offer a safe and efficient transportation system to RITI communities while preserving the culture and making sure that those with restricted travel alternatives are accounted for. The RITI community in Hawaii is the native Hawaiians and part Hawaiians and Pacific Islanders; many of them live in rural areas. Hawaii does not have Indian reservations, but there are a few rural locations where there is a higher percentage of CSET minorities (e.g., Waianae, Waimanalo). There are a significant number of fatal crashes involving minorities in Hawaii and considering all CSET states, Hawaii presented the highest amount of those fatalities. The objective of the research in this thesis is to obtain an understanding of the perceptions of minority groups and all others on urban and rural transportation equity, while correlating with demographic characteristics such as gender, age and education. The study began with a literature review of topics such as equity, minorities, transportation equity, traffic safety equity and emergency medical services response time. With the findings from this review, a survey was created in order to reach out to the minority groups in Hawaii to try to understand what they think about transportation equity and rural safety transportation in the state. The survey analysis was made by comparing the results with socio-demographic characteristics of the respondents. Five transportation equity-related questions were chosen from the big survey and an additional eight questions on rural safety were selected for in-depth analysis. The outcome of the data analysis for the equity-related questions shows that people’s perception in EMS response between rural and urban areas is that it is about the same. The respondents disagreed with (1) paying more taxes in order to improve EMS response in rural areas (2) having the government convert rural roads into high standard roads to make them safer, and (3) paying more taxes so the government can raise the standard on rural roads. The results for the rural safety perception analysis was that the participants consider that the following are not a problem at all in rural Hawaii: (1) cell phone reception for emergency calls, (2) access to public transportation, and (3) absence of signalized intersections. Ambulance response to emergencies in rural roadways, and hidden, missing or defaced traffic signs the respondents were perceived as moderately problematic. Faded or worn out lane markings, and lighting at night, were perceived as problematic.