Hawaiʻi lawmakers are considering requiring some drivers to take refresher written tests when renewing their licenses, after a rise in statewide traffic deaths, the Honolulu Civil Beat reported and the Associated Press distributed.
The idea would be aired first during a Thursday Honolulu City Council committee meeting, according to the report, after City Council member Radiant Cordero and state Rep. Darius Kila said they want to revisit the concept of written renewal testing as lawmakers look for road-safety improvements.
Cordero described the renewal tests as a quick refresher, envisioning a test that would take about 10 minutes to complete. Kila, who said he supports pursuing renewal tests as one possible solution among others, said he sees the tests as more substantial than that.
Kila said Hawaiʻi’s growing population is absorbing more people from more places, not all of which share the same rules of the road. He tied the push to the toll on Hawaiʻi roads, saying 129 people died on Hawaiʻi roads last year, an 18-year high, and adding that people are interacting with roadways as both pedestrians and motorists.
Kila said he does not believe that more testing alone would prevent future traffic deaths, but he argued it is worth pursuing alongside other changes. He said he is working with Sen. Brandon Elefante on a bill this session to update driver’s license procedures, part of a package of bills requested by the governor’s administration.
Sen. Lorraine Inouye, the chair of the Senate Transportation Committee, said she is not keen about reinstating mandatory renewal tests. “If it’s a renewal,” she said, “and we don’t have infractions, why do we have to go to that extreme?” Inouye said she could support a version that mandates renewal tests only for drivers who have “lots and lots of infractions.”
The report also noted that Hawaiʻi previously ended mandatory renewal testing in 1997, when a successful bill removed the requirement. It cited testimony and a committee report from the time that said the frequency of renewal testing does not change driving habits nor lower accident rates, and it described driver licensing offices as crowded with customers as part of the rationale for ending the testing requirement.
At the county level, Cordero introduced resolutions asking state lawmakers to consider mandating renewal tests again. She also urged that driver education requirements include pedestrian safety and bicyclist rights and interactions, pointing to last year’s increase in roadway deaths.
While Cordero supported other road-safety tools—including narrower lanes to slow traffic and restricting parking away from crosswalks to improve visibility—she said license renewals are a rare opportunity to force people to take note when the rules of the road change. “By doing a knowledge test and making sure they’re aware of it,” she said, “that’s a behavior shift.”
The report said Cordero’s resolutions will be considered during the Honolulu City Council’s Government Efficiency and Customer Services Committee meeting Thursday at 2:30 p.m.
The report compared the Hawaiʻi proposal with recent changes in California, where mandatory renewal testing was ended for older drivers in fall 2024, but where drivers may still need a written renewal test in some circumstances, including having at least one accident per year over two or three years or a recent license suspension for driving under the influence.
California’s DMV director, Steve Gordon, was quoted in a statement about that change, saying the state was eliminating the written knowledge test for those without traffic violations on their record to improve customer service and reduce the number of customers visiting DMV offices.