There is a new executive director at PATH — Peoples Advocacy for Trails Hawaii — who brings plenty of experience and enthusiasm to the nonprofit advocating for pedestrian and bicycle safety on Hawaii Island.
Jessica Thompson, who relocated from Portland, Oregon to beautiful Papaikou, took the helm in November and said she’s ready for the challenge.
“It feels exciting and it feels like I have big shoes to fill,” Thompson said. “Tina Clothier is such an amazing advocate and executive director and I feel very grateful to count her as a friend and mentor. I feel excited about all the important work PATH has done over the course of the last ten years in terms of advocating for walking and biking connectivity, and being a real leader in active transportation.”
Founded in 1986, PATH strives to safely connect people and places on Hawaii Island with pathways and bikeways. Thompson is the fifth person to lead the organization since its first executive director, Annie Peterson, who was followed by Laura Dierenfield, Tina Clothier, and Valerie Overlan.
After spending the last 23 years committed to public service in Portland — first as a public school teacher and then in nonprofit administration — the stars aligned last summer signaling to Thompson that it was the perfect time to relocate to the Big Island.
Thompson said at the time, she was the executive director for an active transportation nonprofit organization called Oregon Walks, which is about the same size as PATH, and dedicated to promoting walking and making the conditions for walking safe, convenient and attractive throughout Portland. Her husband, Chris, is a registered nurse, but it was her adopted son, Akeke, who decided to attend UH Hilo last summer.
“Our son is Marshallese, and he relocated here as he felt it was a good location between the Marshall Islands and the mainland,” she said. “So, we made a commitment to him that we would move here in a couple of years and put down roots so our grandkids could be raised here.
“We were here getting him settled in college and we were quarantining in the summer, and then the job opened up for PATH — I just couldn’t believe it! It was on Indeed in August and I thought this was too good to be true. We were going to wait a couple of years and then come over. But when the position opened up, we said this is a sign, we have to do it, and just jumped for it.”
After applying for the position, everything began to fall into place. She met with the PATH Board to hear about their mission, the important work and on-going projects happening on the Big Island, and then was offered the position in September with a start date in November. She put her Portland house on the market, bought a house in Papaikou with a quaint Ohana unit for her mother, Debby, and said “we just couldn’t be happier.”
About Jessica Thompson
Thompson attended Cornell College in Iowa and has a graduate degree in education from Portland State University. She was public school teacher for 13-years and an instructional coach, before transitioning into nonprofit administration for the last seven years – first in public housing, and then in active transportation.
While in Portland, she served as executive director at Oregon Walks, where she helped pass Portland’s comprehensive Pedestrian PDX Plan, served on the steering committee for Portland’s first bus-rapid transit lanes committee, and was a member of Portland’s Vision Zero Taskforce. Her favorite projects included cohosting hundreds of walks with community partners.
Thompson describes herself as an active fitness walker and continues daily walks of three to five miles with her husband Chris.
“When I was living in Portland, we only had one car,” she said. “So, I commuted by bus and by walking for most of my career. By doing so, I was really able to practice active transportation and I plan to continue to do that here. I come over to Kona once per week and I’m looking forward to taking the Hele-On Bus, and then taking the Bikeshare to various meetings.”
When asked her thoughts regarding distance learning and kids returning to school being a former public school teacher, Thompson sympathized with the varying challenges placed upon students, families and teachers, as well as, the effect on PATH’s longtime Fourth Grade Bike Ed Program — a free, three-day bicycle safety and handling program offered to all elementary schools and youth clubs on the Big Island since 1992.
“We have opted not to do our Fourth Grade Bike Ed program at all even if the schools open up this spring. We are going to do a wait and see and hopefully offer it in the fall. Instead, we are looking to purchase new bikes that we will discuss it at our upcoming meeting, and hopeful that we will get the green light. Our bike fleet of 35-bikes are our original bike fleet. The recommendation from staff has been that these bikes really need to be replaced, and this is a good time to do it.”
Upcoming events and ongoing projects for PATH
Thompson said there are many exciting events coming up for PATH like the annual Run For Hops 5K/10K that is being organized as a virtual event from now until March 14th.
“It’s a virtual run that we do in partnership with the Kona Brew Fest,” she said. “People can register for it online, they will get a bib, they can take a picture of themselves walking or running a 5K or 10K. There will be prizes we will be giving away as well as T-shirts. We are excited about that as we had to postpone all of our runs last year.”
In addition, October’s PATH Run 5K/10K typically held the weekend before the Ironman World Championships, will be their first in-person “live” event. Other programs like Safe Routes to School — that provides safe ways for students to walk or bike to school — and Walk and Bike to School Days are what PATH will continue to promote and encourage.
Thompson said the biggest challenge for pedestrian and cycling safety is the current single occupancy vehicle design for transportation systems — an issue not only seen on the Big Island, but around the world.
“Now we are in the position that we have to go and essentially retrofit our transportation systems for greener, more human focused transportation options – like bicycling, walking and mass transit,” she said. “That’s really expensive and so a real big challenge is with limited amount of funds, where do you spend the money and how do you spend the money?”
Thompson credited Hawaii County for the great strides taken to reduce traffic fatalities through the Hawaii Vision Zero Action Plan and the Complete Streets Model.
“The Complete Streets Model basically gives the department of public works and planning beautiful roadmaps for what strategies they can take that will promote people’s ability to bike, and walk, and take mass transit, and drive in single occupancy vehicles in ways that are healthier for the planet, and healthier for humans — a kind of win-win all the way around. So, there are some key tools that the Hawaii County has adapted that will help us lead the way.”
Mayor Roth’s administration is also on board to continue the Mayor’s Active Living Advisory Council, and will be the third mayor’s administration to participate.
“It’s a committee of active living transportation stakeholders that get together and work collaboratively to build solutions to make walking and biking safer for everyone,” Thompson said. “The challenges are big but I have been incredibly impressed at how collaborative everyone here on the Bis Island has been in terms of tackling these challenges. I’m really grateful and excited to be a part of that!”
Increase in ridership for Bikeshare Hawaii
Thompson shared some exciting statistics regarding an increase in Bikeshare ridership in 2020. Bikeshare Hawaii Island is a nonprofit 501(c)3 program created through the joint efforts of the County of Hawaii Department of Research and Development, the Mayor’s Active Living Advisory Council and PATH.
Bikesharing is a viable transportation option that provides economic, health and ultimate convenience benefits for both residents and visitors. Currently there are a total of eleven Bikeshare locations island wide — seven in Kona and four in Hilo — with PATH currently applying for federal funding for an additional four Bike Stations.
“In most places where Bikeshare programs are happening around the country, many municipalities saw Bikeshare ridership go down during the pandemic,” she said. “But Hawaii County, even if we lost so many riders due to the decrease in tourism, we actually saw an increase in ridership in 2020.”
Bikeshare ridership nearly doubled in 2020 — a staggering 14, 739 riders compared to 8,778 in 2019. Sundays tended to be the most popular day of the week to ride, 5 p.m. the most popular time of day, with the top three months of ridership being January, May and November.
“We are all just still looking at each other trying to figure it out,” Thompson laughed. “I think it shows that there are people who are interested as we are building the market, for people wanting to get out and get some exercise.”
To continue the momentum, the County of Hawaii Mass Transit and PATH are joining forces to offer free Bikeshare membership for any Hele-On passholder through their “Hele On, Ride On” project. The purpose is to eliminate the cost barrier and to reduce the need for fossil fuel usage by encouraging transit riders to use the Bikeshare systems for recreation, exercise, and as their “first and last mile” transportation option.
For more information on the “Hele On, Ride On” project or to register for this year’s Virtual Run for Hops 2021, visit PATH’s website at pathhawaii.org.