By Dennis Oda, Star-Bulletin
Lights on the H3 stop near the animal quarantine station.
One of the inescapable '90s things, apparently, is the illumination of highways at night. The Pali and the Likelike highways are now lit up like bowling alleys, and Kamehameha on the downhill stretch to North Shore almost got wired as well before Haleiwa residents put the kibosh on it. There's something nice about motivatin' under the stars, hurtling toward the moon-rippled ocean and the sugar cane thrashing grayly by in the night. In the dark about lights along the H3
The H-3 freeway is floodlit like the Space Shuttle is going to land on it. Everything except for one short stretch near the Halawa interchange, where the lights are suddenly dropped right to eye level and mounted on the "jersey barriers" alongside the roadbed. Whether there are too many, and whether they're blinding or annoying is open to interpretation. Why this momentary break in uniformity?
Nearby is the animal quarantine station. The Department of Transportation's thinking, explained spokesperson Marilyn Kali, is that lights shining down on the animals would keep them awake at night.
Good thinking. Animals can't be lulled off with a reading of "Good Night Moon." No. Animals think: dark = sleep. Sleep, good.
Sleep-deprived animals become cranky animals. Animals with plenty of sleep become loving, friendly, don't-bite-your-face-off animals.
Remember that if you're annoyed by the eye-level lights. You can suffer for a few feet so the animals can catch up on their winks. And no yelling or honking either! Animals are trying to sleep down there!
Burl Burlingame, Star-Bulletin
