Improving sustainable transportation on Oʻahu

The Hawaiian island of Oʻahu, home to over a million people, faces the same everyday problem that frustrates Americans across the continental U.S.: traffic congestion and limited transportation options. This research is providing new insights on how to reduce air pollution and vehicle miles traveled while simultaneously shrinking commute times and saving employees money.

Challenge

Despite the island’s small size, many people spend hours driving alone during their daily commutes, only to have trouble finding parking or paying expensive parking fees when they finally arrive at work. As the state of Hawaiʻi is one of the largest employers on Oʻahu, changing the transportation habits of its 32,000 employees is a good place to start to alleviate congestion for all residents. We supported the Oʻahu Metropolitan Planning Organization and the Hawaiʻi State Energy Office to find out what factors influence how state employees decide to commute, and how to motivate them to choose more sustainable modes of transport.

There are many reasons that these state employees (along with other commuters) opt to drive themselves to work: Oʻahu doesn’t have a robust public transit system compared to other large cities, many streets are not suitable for walking or biking safely, parking is heavily subsidized, and working remotely is not an option for most employees. As a result, downtown Honolulu is chock full of traffic jams, and demand for parking is very high. Some employees spend years on the parking waitlist to park in employee designated lots that are subsidized at about 68%-89%, compared to market rate parking prices. In the meantime, some are using public street parking spaces that require them to leave their office multiple times in a day to replenish the parking meter.

Solution

Building on our broad experience with sustainable mobility and transportation demand management (TDM)—ensuring that all travelers have access to mobility options—we conducted a survey of 11,000 state employees to learn how they are currently commuting to work and what factors influence their choices.

We also conducted a travel trends analysis that examined common routes and areas that experience the most traffic congestion. We created an inventory of parking availability and prices of every state-owned parking space. All this information informed a list of tailored recommendations for how the state can shift traveler behavior toward more sustainable modes of commuting.

Results

While our research shows that state employees on Oʻahu already use public transit at nearly twice the rate as the overall state population (11% vs. 6%), a fully subsidized transit pass was identified as the top incentive to encourage mode shift. We found that more than half the employees who drive to work, have a direct commute without any need for stops, making carpooling or public transit a viable option for them. In addition, 15% of commuters live within three miles of their workplace, which makes them well-suited to using public transit or other modes (e.g., walking, biking, rolling), particularly if an incentive can be provided to them.

We leveraged these findings to develop and support several legislative bills to formalize TDM strategies for state employees, which included the following recommendations:

• Providing financial incentives that encourage commuters to use more sustainable options such as carpooling/vanpooling, walking, biking, or public transit.
• Offering free ride-hail or taxi rides home in case of an emergency.
• Matching commuters with colleagues to carpool/vanpool with compressed workweek schedules (thus reducing the number of commutes).
• Allowing employees to work remotely or on a hybrid schedule.
• Introducing market-rate monthly parking pricing to disincentivize drive-alone trips among state employees.

While the legislative bills were not successful in the 2025 legislative session, the OahuMPO and HSEO are committed and actively working towards reintroducing the bills in 2026 to establish a robust state employee TDM program. We continue to work with our partners to educate state policymakers about the benefits of these actions, including substantial improvements to traffic and air quality, and increased state employee job retention by improving quality of life through saved time and money.

The project has also expanded its scope to assess how state employees based on the neighbor islands (including Maui, Hawaiʻi Island, and Kauaʻi Counties) can more easily shift their commutes to sustainable transport.