Foster Village traffic
project is scaled back

The city has agreed to scale back a series of "traffic-calming" measures along Haloa Drive in Foster Village, more than a year after residents started complaining about the project.

City spokeswoman Carol Costa said that even though construction on three bulb-outs -- landscaped extensions of the curb that jut out into the street -- has started along Haloa Drive, only one will be completed. Other bulb-outs will only be put in if the community's response to the first is positive, she said.

"I think the compromise is certainly a very fair way of looking at this traffic calming," she said. "(Crews) will install the first one ... and let the community adjust."

Dozens of Foster Village residents had been fighting for more than a year to stop the city from building the bulb-outs, saying speeding in the area is not bad enough to warrant them.

But Costa and City Councilman Romy Cachola said some residents must have been concerned about speeding, or the project would not have been started.

"In 1999 the community decided ... to come up with a bulb-out or traffic-calming measure, and there were a series of meetings and the community all came out," Cachola said.

The bulb-outs are intended to slow cars by putting turns in the road. They were originally set to be installed at three intersections with Haloa Drive. Costa said a bulb-out at the intersection with Molehu Drive will be put in, but those at Kukila and Halupa streets have been postponed.

She said she did not have an estimate for how much the project costs because the bulb-outs are part of a contract that includes other road improvements in the area and elsewhere.

The city will not have to pay more to put the other bulb-outs in later, she said. But it is unclear whether the city will get refunded if the two bulb-outs are not installed.

"I look at this as the city and county forcing things on the community that are only desired by a few people," said Janice Pechauer, who has lived in Foster Village since 1968. "I really feel kind of betrayed."

Pechauer collected more than 500 signatures from residents last year against the project, which she said constitutes 95 percent of those who would be affected by the bulb-outs. She presented the petition and signatures to the city in April 2003, she said.

In a May 2003 letter to Pechauer, city Councilman Romy Cachola said the city would put in the bulb-outs only if they determined that "there is a need."

Several Foster Village residents are trying to make sure the two remaining bulb-outs are not installed. Pechauer said residents have been urged to contact the city, Cachola and others.

Resident Walter Koide was one of several who recently e-mailed new city Department of Transportation Services Director George Miyamoto about the project. Koide called the bulb-outs "grossly expensive" and "just plain ugly."

"Not only will they cause excessive noise pollution when cars accelerate out of the bulb-outs, residents are also losing valuable on-street parking," he said. "Two additional problems are created by trying to fix one, which is not even a problem to begin with."