Hawaii County, HI Public Conduct: Jaywalking (2026)

HCC § 24-248 is Hawaii County's closest equivalent to a jaywalking statute, and it is narrower than what people expect: subsection (a) prohibits entering or crossing "any roadway or portion of any roadway designated by ordinance as closed to pedestrian traffic," carving out marked crosswalks, pedestrian overpasses, and pedestrian tunnels as always-legal crossing points. Subsection (b) ties the ban to a specific list, schedule 26 at § 24-278, so the prohibition only bites on the streets or blocks the county has actually named, not on every road countywide.

The companion section, § 24-246, separately establishes which streets carry marked crosswalks (schedule 24, § 24-276), and § 24-247 bars drivers from blocking an intersection or crosswalk even on a green signal, so a pedestrian legally in a crosswalk still has to contend with vehicles that shouldn't be there. Section 24-248 itself sets no fine, which matters because the code's general penalty clause, § 1-10, fills the gap: any Code violation without its own stated penalty is punishable by up to a $100 fine, up to 90 days imprisonment, or both.

Because Hawaii County has no incorporated cities, this ordinance is the only municipal-level pedestrian-crossing law on the Big Island; Hilo and Kona residents fall under the same county code as every other unincorporated community on the island, with no separate city ordinance layered on top. Enforcement runs through the Hawai'i Police Department, and the underlying schedule (which streets are actually "closed") is the practical variable: a corridor near a school or resort strip is far more likely to appear on schedule 26 than a rural county road.