RESULTS OF A SURVEY ON TRANSPORTATION SAFETY EQUITY IN HAWAII

Abstract

Five transportation equity questions were developed for this assessment. Question 1 addressed EMS response in urban and rural areas. People with a bachelor’s degree or higher thought slightly more that rural response is worse. Rural residents believed it is worse and half of urban residents agreed. CSET minority respondents thought that rural response is slightly worse. These groups have a perception that reflects reality, according to FARS data, but the overall response to the question “Compared to urban areas, in rural areas emergency response is?” is “about the same.” Every demographic group did not support the proposal of question 2 for the government to increase gasoline taxes to collect money to invest in EMS response improvements in rural areas of Hawaii. The overall result for question 3 is that respondents were divided when it comes to converting rural roads into high standard roads in Hawaii. No demographic group had a majority response, pro, against or neutral. The response to question 4 was much clearer: all demographic groups disagreed with the proposition that the government should raise gasoline taxes to collect funds for the purpose of making rural roads safer by converting them to high standard roads. Question 5 addressed the urban-rural road funding balance: “Should more money, less money or about the same amount of money be provided to support urban road and highway improvements?” The response was mostly divided between same amount and more money, suggesting that an equal share should be allocated between urban and rural roads. Overall, the results suggest a lack of awareness of conditions on rural roads.