JAMM AQUINO / JAQUINO@STARBULLETIN.COM
Traffic remained congested throughout much of yesterday afternoon as vehicles headed into Aloha Stadium for the sold-out University of Hawaii football game against Oregon State. CLICK FOR LARGE
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Stadium traffic clogs roads
Some UH football fans spend over an hour in gridlock on side roads and freeways
Pretty bad. Terrible. The worst.
These were just some of the adjectives heard inside the Aloha Stadium parking lot yesterday afternoon to describe the traffic gridlock caused by the first sold-out football game since the Warriors' 2005 season opener against USC.
Even those who left early to get to the game became trapped in clogged freeways and side roads, and many spent more than an hour in bumper-to-bumper traffic to travel distances that normally take only a few minutes.
"It's absolutely ridiculous," Dave Kowalsky, 44, said as he arrived at the stadium at 4 p.m. to meet friend Chris Beddow -- one hour and 30 minutes after he left Makiki.
Although the kickoff between the University of Hawaii and Oregon State wasn't until 7:05 p.m., an estimated 50,000 fans caused traffic on at least two Ewa-bound lanes of the Moanalua Freeway to back up for more than a mile from the stadium at about 2:30 p.m. The drive for some Ewa Beach residents yesterday took as long as two hours.
That's how much time Robert Keith, 36, spent in his car coming from Pearl City. But the environmental consultant blamed the long lines on drivers who stayed behind each other's cars and forgot to use other lanes.
"Not everyone remembers that there's more than one lane," said Keith, who strategically parked near a back gate to avoid the postgame bottleneck.
Police sent "a couple of dozen officers" to direct traffic about 2 p.m. near the stadium's gates and at major intersections in the area, said Lt. Ben Ballesteros of the Pearl City station. He said police were present at Salt Lake Boulevard and Kahuapaani Street, as well as Moanalua Road near Aiea Elementary. However, some officers had to be reassigned to the Honolulu City Lights Electric Light Parade downtown.
"It's congested all the way around. It's bad, it's really bad," he said. "It's a traffic nightmare."
The 8,000 stalls at the stadium filled up about 3:30 p.m., Ballesteros said, adding that alternate parking sites at Radford High School and Kamehameha Drive-In were also reaching capacity by that time.
By 5:45 p.m., he said only Leeward Community College had some empty stalls left, though it was likely that shuttles leaving that campus would also hit heavy traffic.
Despite the chaos, by 6 p.m., only two minor fender-benders that caused no injuries had happened near the stadium, Ballesteros said. Police also planned to issue tickets to a number of drivers who parked illegally.
For Bob Bartcher, an Oregon fan who flew to Oahu on Tuesday, the standstill between Waikiki and the stadium translated to a cab bill of $56.
"Game-day traffic is never like this back at home," said Bartcher, 59, who might have been more upset if he hadn't had five other friends to split the taxi tab. "It was absolutely worth it."