By Cindy Ellen Russell, Star-Bulletin
Mayor Jeremy Harris gets ready to take his
bicycle for a spin after announcing a new
master bike plan for Honolulu.

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Gov. Cayetano,
Harris pushing
bicycle plan

The 20-year project
would link Diamond Head
and Aloha Tower

By Gordon Y.K. Pang
Star-Bulletin

Mayor Jeremy Harris and Gov. Ben Cayetano announced their support of a 20-year Honolulu Bicycle Master Plan during a joint press conference this morning.

The just-completed draft of the plan is a bicyclist's dream:

A "Lei of Parks" route linking Diamond Head with Aloha Tower.

A "park boulevard" along a tree-lined Young Street, with fewer parked cars.

A continuous bikeway between Pearl City and East Honolulu.

City Transportation Services Director Cheryl Soon said cyclists should like what they see, having spent the last 15 months working on it with planners.

Putting it into place will cost taxpayers an estimated $80 million. About $50 million would come from city coffers, and the remaining $30 million from state sources.

The goal of government officials is to create more bike-friendly roads - not only to encourage more cyclists, but to get those already on bikes to use them more, possibly for commuting to work.

Harris said an estimated 1 percent of commuters ride to and from work. City officials want to increase that 2 to 3 percent. A recent survey showed 23 percent of Oahu residents had ridden a bike within a month's time.

A key hindrance, however, remains a scarcity of linked bike routes.

The master plan seeks to change that. It proposes development of a network of nearly 100 miles of new bike routes stretching from Kahala to Pearl City.

Cayetano's spokeswoman said the state administration is committed to helping fulfill the city's plan.

A portion of the plan that Cayetano has a key interest in is the "Lei of Parks" route that will run from Diamond Head to Aloha Tower, Racuya-Markrich said. It would wind, mostly on off-road paths, through the city's regional parks and attractions.

Cayetano said the state will take the lead in areas where the city does not have jurisdiction, creating bike paths in rural areas such as Kapolei and Pearl City.

The draft master plan identifies three priority levels which may overlap in terms of development timetables.

In Priority One is the 14.8-mile "Lei of Parks" project, which would include the Young Street park boulevard, with a cost of $23.2 million.

Also of highest priority is development of "Bike-Friendly Route No. 1," which would create a string of bikeways from Kahala to Pearl City, primarily through a corridor makai of Lunalilo Freeway. Estimated cost is $9.7 million.

Additionally, a series of "college access" bike paths falls into this category, which would make it easier to pedal to Honolulu's universities and community colleges.

Priority Two projects include developing mauka links to the "Lei of Parks," completing makai and central bike corridors and creating new mauka-makai corridors.

Priority Three projects include completing mauka and mauka-makai bike corridors.

The draft will be presented to the 17 neighborhood boards in affected areas this month. "We will make revisions based on input," Soon said.

From there, the plan will be taken to the City Council. The Council does not have final say on the plan itself, but its support would be crucial when it comes time to allot funds for capital improvement projects.