JAMM AQUINO / JAQUINO@STARBULLETIN.COM Concerned citizens persuaded the mayor to keep this crosswalk at the intersection of Bishop and King streets.

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Students’ effort helps
preserve crosswalk
at downtown spot

Mayor Mufi Hannemann said he will drop a plan to eliminate a crosswalk in the downtown Honolulu financial district.

"Let me make you happy," Hannemann told two Downtown Neighborhood Board members and two high school students who met with him yesterday. "We're not going to go forward."

For Honolulu Waldorf School 10th-graders Morganne Aaberg and Julia Stokes, Hannemann's decision to retain the Diamond Head crosswalk at the intersection of King and Bishop streets was a real-life civics lesson -- and a victory for pedestrians.

"It's just amazing. We can't even vote and we're already making a difference," Aaberg said after meeting with the mayor.

The students accompanied neighborhood board members Lynne Matusow and Dolores Mollring to deliver a petition signed by 1,360 people who objected to the crosswalk's removal.

"I just feel that one person can make a difference if it's something that you truly believe in," said Mollring, who helped gather signatures. "When these kids volunteered to help, it made it even bigger and better," she said.

City Transportation Director Ed Hirata proposed eliminating the heavily used crosswalk between Tamarind Park and the First Hawaiian Bank building to help ease morning traffic congestion through downtown.

City officials said that if the crosswalk were gone, it would help makai-bound traffic on one-way Bishop Street flow better through the intersection because cars turning left onto King Street would not have to wait for pedestrians.

But the neighborhood board voted 5-3 against the plan at its April 7 meeting.

The Waldorf students said getting rid of the crosswalk sent the wrong message.

"Having a city that's pro-car is really not good," Aaberg said. "So they take away crosswalks, they make more roads, make it faster, easier for cars. That's really the wrong direction."

Hannemann said he listened to all sides, including city engineers.

"I'm very concerned about traffic safety, as you are, and I want a balanced approach. I want to make sure that we take into account vehicular traffic as well as pedestrian safety," Hannemann told the four in his office. "I feel that based on what I've heard so far and my personal experience, this is a crosswalk that should remain."

The neighborhood board also heard details of a proposal to remove the crosswalk at the Diamond Head side of the intersection of Punchbowl and King streets, but it did not take a position because the vote was split.

City spokesman Bill Brennan said the city will likely continue with plans to remove that crosswalk, which links City Hall and Kawaiaha'o Church.

The idea to remove that crosswalk came during a discussion on whether to revert Punchbowl Street, between King and Beretania streets, to one-way instead of the current two-way traffic pattern. Hannemann decided to leave the traffic pattern alone.