Walk This Way: How Hawaii's Streets Can Inspire Your Active Lifestyle
"Discover how urban design in Hawaii impacts pedestrian and bicycle use, and learn what you can do to promote healthier, more active communities."
Walking and bicycling are fantastic ways to get around, offering significant health benefits. However, the design of our streets and roads plays a crucial role in determining how much we choose these active transportation methods. Think about it: a street with wide sidewalks, bike lanes, and safe crossings is far more inviting than a busy road with narrow shoulders and speeding traffic. Numerous national initiatives are working to improve pedestrian and bicycling infrastructure, but how do we know where to focus our efforts?
Imagine a world where every street is a safe and enjoyable place to walk or bike. Unfortunately, many areas still have a long way to go. That's why a comprehensive assessment of street conditions is essential. To understand the challenges and opportunities for creating more pedestrian- and bicycle-friendly communities, a detailed study was undertaken to assess the accessibility and friendliness of Hawaii's roads for these two activities. This research offers valuable insights that can inform urban planning and promote healthier, more active lifestyles.
The Aloha State, with its beautiful landscapes and vibrant communities, provides a unique setting to evaluate how street design impacts active transportation. The study sheds light on the specific factors that encourage or discourage walking and bicycling, offering lessons that can be applied far beyond the islands.
Counting Steps: The Data Behind Daily Walking and Biking
Data collection efforts reveal how many people actually walk and bike in cities on an average day. In a count of downtown Wilkes-Barre, the largest average number of pedestrians (512) was observed during lunch hours, while the largest numbers of bicyclists were seen during evening and weekend hours. Alta, using the standardized methodology of the Bicycle and Pedestrian Documentation Project, counted people on foot and bike across three districts of Raleigh—the Warehouse District, Downtown Core, and Glenwood South. Yet pedestrians remain vulnerable road users, and the rise of SUVs has decreased their safety, which is exactly why consistent counting matters for active-living planning.
How Exposure Is Measured — and Where Counts Fall Short
A common approach to estimating pedestrian and bicyclist activity is distance-based: the Federal Highway Administration describes a methodology that combines counts of pedestrian and bicyclist volumes with the distances they travel on facilities shared with motor vehicles. Such counts capture snapshots of movement rather than complete travel behavior, which is one reason agencies pair them with broader planning targets. Bellingham, for example, supports long-term mode shift goals adopted in the transportation element of its comprehensive plan, setting targets to reduce the percentage of trips made by single-occupant vehicles while increasing the percentage made by other modes. These examples show that raw numbers matter most when they are linked to measurable goals.
From Master Plans to Heritage Trails: Milestones in Active Travel
Modern pedestrian and bicycle planning has evolved through a series of landmark efforts. In 2014, the Maryland Department of Transportation developed an ambitious Twenty-Year Bicycle and Pedestrian Master Plan, though the state's policies for building bicycle facilities on state roads were well-intentioned and the results often did not meet the needs of people who bike. University of Minnesota research on urban trails and demand response to weather variations helped establish how climate regions shape pedestrian and bicycle demand. More recently, Burlington County in New Jersey has sought public input on a pedestrian and bicyclist safety plan, building on more than 50 miles of regional and interior park trails that include the Delaware River Heritage Trail.
Key Findings: What Makes a Street Walkable and Bikeable?
The Hawaii study, which objectively assessed hundreds of street segments across the islands, revealed some interesting patterns. High-capacity streets (those designed for more vehicular traffic) generally had better pedestrian infrastructure, such as sidewalks and crossing signals. However, low-capacity roads often lacked these basic amenities. Bicycle facilities were limited across the board, highlighting a significant area for improvement.
- Sidewalks: Contiguous sidewalks in good condition are essential for safe and comfortable walking.
- Crossing Aids: Crosswalks and pedestrian signals make it easier and safer to cross busy streets.
- Mixed Land Use: A variety of land uses within a neighborhood promotes walking and biking for errands and recreation.
- Bicycle Facilities: Dedicated bike lanes and routes encourage cycling for transportation and leisure.
Measuring Movement: New Tools for Tracking Active Travel
Recent research has expanded how cities measure walking and bicycling. The Seamless Travel Project in San Diego County, coordinated with the National Bicycle & Pedestrian Documentation Project, is described as the largest and longest combined count and survey effort in the United States focusing only on bicyclists and pedestrians. Complementary research on built environments finds that the physical surroundings directly affect the safety, comfort, and convenience of active transportation mode choices for pedestrians and bicyclists. Together, these lines of study link measured activity directly to how streets and neighborhoods are designed.
When Walking and Biking Plans Fall Short
Not every pedestrian and bicycle program succeeds, and safety data highlight the costs of failure. An early MetroWest study documented bicycle and pedestrian accident data, including maps of accidents at the community level, for the years 1989 through 1991. More recent figures show the stakes have risen: in Colorado, pedestrian and bicyclist fatalities increased 78% since 2015, while passenger vehicle deaths increased only 7% in that same timeframe. Pedestrians and bicyclists face a greater risk of severe injury or death in crashes involving motor vehicles—a risk that even well-intentioned plans have struggled to reverse.
Side-by-Side: Comparing Streets and Their Trade-Offs
Comparative analysis helps planners see how different streets perform for people on foot and on bike. General-purpose comparison platforms such as Versus make side-by-side evaluation more accessible, offering detailed specifications, filters, and clear data visualizations across dozens of categories. Academic work goes deeper: a University of Virginia thesis on pedestrian and bicycle safety and comfort along Water Street uses actor-network theory to examine how transportation infrastructure can embody discriminatory technologies. Together, these approaches compare not only physical performance but also the equity dimensions of street design.
Creating Change: What Can You Do?
The Hawaii study offers a valuable snapshot of the challenges and opportunities for promoting active transportation. While the specific findings are relevant to Hawaii, the broader lessons apply to communities everywhere. By advocating for Complete Streets policies, supporting mixed-use development, and prioritizing pedestrian and bicycle infrastructure, we can create healthier, more vibrant communities where active living is the norm, not the exception. Let's work together to build a future where everyone can safely and easily walk or bike to their destinations, enjoying the many benefits of an active lifestyle.
Expert View: Distraction, Density, and the Shifting Street
Expert commentary on pedestrian safety points to both persistent dangers and new disruptions. A study using data from the U.S. Fatality Analysis Reporting System reports that distracted driving—texting, talking on the phone, or eating at the wheel—contributed to a rise in pedestrian deaths, and found that mostly white males between the ages of 25 and 64 accounted for the distracted driving that ultimately led to pedestrian and cyclist deaths. The COVID-19 pandemic introduced another variable, with research observing that the higher the number of COVID-19 cases, the less (or more negative) the effects of density, street connectivity, and destination accessibility on pedestrian volume became. Together these findings suggest that street activity depends on far more than infrastructure alone.
Streets of Tomorrow: Slow Lanes, More Walkers, and New Risks
The street of the future will likely rebalance space away from cars. Bicycle and pedestrian advocates in Portland are rallying supporters to encourage the City to designate certain traffic corridors as slow streets, with extra street space dedicated to restaurants, retail, pedestrians, and bicyclists. Along Washington Street, conversions have already produced measurable results, including an increase in pedestrian and bicycle volumes while parking utilization sat at 61 percent, indicating many available spaces. Yet the push toward more walking and biking carries a caution: reporting on cities that encourage pedestrians and biking identifies an emerging trend of more deaths, tied to the overall increase in pedestrians and cyclists, distraction among road users, and the design of roadways themselves.
Small Towns, Big Gaps: Systemic Barriers to Safer Streets
Systemic challenges to active living persist well beyond big cities. Federal Highway Administration guidance on small town and rural multimodal networks addresses design elements of the built environment—from traffic calming and speed humps to pedestrian access routes, detectable warning surfaces, and bridges or overpasses—that shape accessibility in less urbanized areas. At the intersection level, crash analysis in Malden highlights how safe bicycle and pedestrian facilities matter most where high-crash locations meet major destinations, such as the Northern Strand Community Path, which meets Main Street less than one-tenth of a mile south of the study intersection. These cases show that safety gains depend on connecting infrastructure to where people actually walk and bike.
Real People, Real Places: Walking and Biking in Small Communities
The real-world impact of pedestrian and bicycle infrastructure shows up most clearly in small communities. Case studies of bicycling and walking in small communities feature existing rural bicycle and pedestrian infrastructure located across five states, including Arcadia, LaBelle, and Taylor Creek in Florida, as well as Calvert and other communities. These examples illustrate how modest, community-scale facilities can support everyday active lifestyles in places often overlooked by urban-focused planning.