Kauai Seeks Public Input on Road Safety Plan Ahead of Federal Grant Deadline

Nawiliwili Road in Līhuʻe is where Kailon Tyndzik, 30, a surfer and fisherman known across the island, died in a hit-and-run while skateboarding in February 2025. It is exactly the kind of corridor Kauaʻi's Planning Department wants residents to flag Tuesday evening as the county races to complete a road-safety blueprint required for a $687.8 million federal grant opportunity closing May 26.

The public workshop runs from 5:30 to 7 p.m. April 8 in the Planning Commission Room at Līhuʻe Civic Center. Residents, pedestrians, cyclists, and transit users are invited to name dangerous intersections, share near-miss experiences, and help prioritize corridors across the island. That input will feed directly into the county's Comprehensive Safety Action Plan, a document the federal Safe Streets and Roads for All program requires before any county can apply for implementation grants. Kauaʻi's window to compete for those dollars closes when SS4A applications are due May 26.

The numbers driving that urgency are hard to dismiss. Kauaʻi recorded eight traffic fatalities in 2024, a roughly 75% increase from four in 2023, and the lowest total among Hawaii's four counties. Four of those eight were pedestrians, two of whom were unhoused residents. Statewide, Hawaii logged 102 road deaths in 2024 before surging to 129 in 2025, an 18-year peak and a more than 20% jump over the prior year. Hawaii was one of just six states in the country where road death rates rose in 2025. The pedestrian toll is particularly disproportionate: while pedestrian deaths account for roughly 18% of traffic fatalities nationally, they made up 35% of Hawaii's in 2024.

Early 2026 has offered a cautious break. State data released in March showed Hawaii traffic fatalities running at roughly half the rate of the same period in 2025, prompting HDOT Director Ed Sniffen to urge officials to "double down on our combined efforts." Whether that trend holds likely depends in part on the kind of targeted infrastructure investments a completed Safety Action Plan could unlock.

Projects that typically follow from these safety plans include crosswalk additions, sidewalk gap closures, speed limit reductions on high-crash corridors, upgraded intersection lighting, and lane configuration changes on the narrow two-lane highways connecting Kauaʻi's resort zones to its residential communities. The SS4A program, established by the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, has already distributed $3.9 billion to more than 1,600 communities since 2022. Counties without a completed action plan are categorically ineligible for the larger implementation grants.

Kauaʻi's Planning Department first launched a public road-safety survey in October 2025, meaning the engagement process has been running six months ahead of Tuesday's session. Residents who cannot attend in person can still submit input through the county's online map and survey tools. For questions, translation requests, or accessibility accommodations, contact Alan Clinton at the Planning Department at 808-241-4978 or aclinton@kauai.gov.

Tuesday's workshop falls at the sharpest point of the county's planning calendar. Community input gathered this spring will determine which roads and intersections get written into the Safety Action Plan, and ultimately which projects Kauaʻi pursues when federal applications open for the county's share of nearly $700 million in road-safety funding.