Making room
By Khalil Spencer
for bicyclesLike many of our streets, Kealaolu, a quiet two-lane road in Kahala, was built decades ago when Honolulu was a quieter place. Now an important connector between bustling communities in East Oahu and Waikiki, it is becoming overtaxed by traffic and plagued by speeding and other violations of the traffic code. Residents who settled there decades ago, at least in part because of the rural "feel" of the area, understandably feel under siege. Indeed, everyone who uses the road is at risk from the speeders and reckless road users, coupled with the narrow road profile and heavier use.
Having been a party to recent negotiations between the city, residents and cyclists regarding the installation of bike lanes, I would like to explain what the main point of the dialogue really is: We need to make Kealaolu Road safer for everybody!
The "bike lane" discussions have uncovered more elegant solutions that may be less onerous to some, all the while bringing more of the community into the dialogue. The focus on how to make our streets safer for motorists and non-motorists has been widened to consider the Honolulu Primary Urban Corridor. We all have something to learn from Kealaolu Road.
Although Kealaolu has its problems, to most cyclists it is part of a quiet (compared to other routes) aesthetically pleasing, direct connector route from Kapiolani Park and Waikiki to Kalanianaole Highway.
Based on bicycling traffic patterns, a State Bike Plan drafted during the early 1990s identified Kealaolu Road as a prime candidate for bike lanes. Recently, the city designated portions of the city Bike Fund to add them.
Some longtime residents were taken aback by the impending project and opposed it for a variety of reasons, including NIMBY, a sense that the community was not consulted, a desire to see their street left as a small quiet place, a fear that adding width would encourage speeding, and a sense that residents' needs (drainage, sidewalks, peace and quiet) were being ignored.
Some residents saw cyclists not as their neighbors but as an intrusive special interest group not connected to the community, being catered to by the city at the community's expense. The proposal bogged down in sometimes heated disagreement between some cyclists and some residents.
Lost in the hu-hu were the common interests that we all share: a desire for a quiet, safe place to carry on one's interests, whether these be living, jogging, walking or cycling.
But there have been positive results, these being the close connection between the cycling discussion and the safety-related traffic calming now being proposed and implemented. Indeed, many of the traffic-calming strategies were suggested to the community by Hawaii Bicyling League member and urban planner Todd Boulanger.
Speeding, heavy traffic and carelessness are serious problems we face regardless of how we travel. We need solutions that serve the greater good with the most bang for the buck.
Out of the Kealaolu debate arose a traffic-safety and cycling dialogue started by Mayor Harris, Councilman Duke Bainum, the Department of Transportation Services, members of neighborhood boards and HBL, and concerned citizens.
Recently, with the addition of the Washington, D.C.-based research and planning firm Bicycle Federation of America, the talks have been expanded to an area from Aiea to Waialae-Kahala.
Community workshops and planning sessions are taking a broader view of cycling as an important cog in the wheel of a city-wide transportation system.
Aloha and traffic enforcement will be stressed. Traffic calming techniques, such as those suggested for Kealaolu, will be implemented. Traffic calming often makes roads more esthetically pleasing, slows down speeders and adds safety without adding "more asphalt."
I am excited by the opportunities before us as we plan how our roads and communities will be linked into the 21st century.
Khalil J. Spencer, a 10-year resident of
East Honolulu, is a member of the board of directors of the
Hawaii Bicycling League and co-chairman of its
Community Affairs Committee.