New traffic lights are sprouting up all over;
with each one costing at least $150,000,
why are all systems go?

By Gordon Pang
Star-Bulletin

You harried motorists have not been hallucinating: There are a lot more traffic signals.

The city has added 15 since June, according to Transportation Director Cheryl Soon. Three other signals have been modified.

Costing between $150,000 and $180,000 each, only about three to four new signals typically make it through the budget process each year, Soon says.

But since the city discovered the federal Department of Transportation's Congestion Management Air Quality Program, traffic signals have been going up at a faster clip.

In Aiea Heights, Stan Hosaka is happy he no longer needs to make a large detour to get to the Aiea Shopping Center just down the street from his house. The placement of a traffic light at Aiea Heights Drive and Ulune Street means he no longer faces a "no left turn" sign blocking direct access to the shopping center. Hosaka's efforts, aided by neighbors, area Councilman Mufi Hannemann and the Aiea Neighborhood Board, also got a traffic signal several blocks away at Ulune and Kulawea streets - the major artery into Aiea Intermediate School.

"In the morning and the afternoon, parents had hard time turning left onto Ulune from Kulawea," the Kulawea resident says.

Newtown resident Anthony Young says he's glad to see the new signal at Komo Mai Drive and Nahele Street near the Newtown Recreational Center.

Young says that in the five years since he moved into the area, more cars have begun using Komo Mai as a speedy alternative between Pearl City and Aiea, making left turns from Nahele increasingly difficult.

In Kapahulu, "Sione" sits on the porch outside his two-story walk-up at Date Street and Olokele Avenue observing the effects of a new traffic signal.

"It's safe now," he says, noting that the area near the back entrance to Kaimuki High School had been dangerous for pedestrians and motorists.

In Chinatown, Dawn Mishima of Aloha Leis and Flowers has mixed feelings about the new signal at Pauahi and Maunakea streets.

"The lights are a good idea; there have been a lot of close calls, and accidents," says Mishima, part-owner of the corner lei shop.

But since the signal has turned on, she has seen cars backing up along Maunakea Street all the way to North Beretania.

She's wondering whether a four-way stop sign would have been a better solution - particularly since the traffic signal required the elimination of several parking stalls on Pauahi.

"Like we had a lot of parking stalls in the first place," she says, laughing.

"Four-way stops are a legitimate traffic engineering solution," Soon says. But higher traffic volume usually dictates that a signal be used instead, she says.

Opposition by Lanikai residents to what was supposed to have been the 16th traffic signal - at Kailua Road and South Kalaheo Avenue - has been so strong that the project has been suspended.

The intersection is abuzz with traffic all hours of the day, even during weekends. It's the main artery to Lanikai and serves as an entrance and exit for Kailua Beach Park.

Kalapawai Market, a busy country store, stands at one corner.

Don Dimond, market owner, thinks the proposal is ridiculous.

"There's going to be major backup," Dimond says, estimating that 65 percent of the cars traveling from the Lanikai side of Kalaheo try to make a left turn onto Kailua Road.

The Lanikai Association has voted down the traffic signal.

The Kailua Neighborhood Board endorsed it on a split decision.

Residents suggested that there be a three-way stop, thus allowing those coming from Lanikai "the predominant" right-of-way.

That idea was scrapped by Soon, who instead proposed a four-way stop.

But Dimond and other Lanikai residents don't like that idea either.

"It's suspended pending further review," Soon says of the Kailua-Kalaheo quagmire.