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Bus drivers will get power
to extend green lights

By Gordon Y.K. Pang
Star-Bulletin

CityExpress! bus drivers will be able to get through major intersections more quickly, thanks to a signal priority system set to debut in several months.

Drivers using a beacon-like device will be able to "hold" a green light in their favor at selected intersections for as long as 10 seconds, according to Don Hamada, traffic signal and technology division chief for the city Department of Transportation Services.

Hamada described the program for a gathering of the Federal Transit Administration's Bus Rapid Transit consortium yesterday. Honolulu is one of the 10 member cities.

The signal priority system will cost about $58,000 in equipment and will involve, at least initially, the 30 or so buses on the CityExpress! route.

Hamada said the new program is designed to help buses stay on schedule in a safe manner. A driver approaching a programmed traffic signal would be able to extend a green light from as far away as 2,500 feet, he said.

Studies have shown the typical CityExpress! bus gets stopped by a yellow light an average of four times a run, Hamada said.

The system is the same as the one that has been used by fire and emergency medical service drivers for about two years now.

The only difference, Hamada said, is that fire and ambulances with signal priority capability can actually change a light from red to green. A CityExpress! driver would only be able to extend a green light.

The initial intersections where signal prioritization could occur are: King-Kalihi streets, Dillingham Boulevard-King-Liliha streets, Kapiolani Boulevard-Ward Avenue, Kapiolani-McCully Street and Kapiolani-University Avenue.

"These intersections were the ones where delays occurred the most, based on travel-time studies," Hamada said.

If successful, the signal priority system could be used on other routes as well, he said.

Roger Morton, chief operating officer for Oahu Transit Services, said he's eager to see the project get under way for TheBus.

"The drivers would be eager to have anything that would help them get through congestion safely," he said.

Morton said he's seen signal prioritization work "phenomenally well" in the Japanese cities of Osaka and Nagoya.