Kokua Line June Watanabe

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Marking stalls leaves fewer places to park

Question: Is there any way the city could institute marked parking spaces along the residential streets near the University of Hawaii-Manoa campus? Specifically, Hyde Street? In this way, you eliminate angry and frustrated residents and unnecessary phone calls to the police to ticket illegal parkers. Parts of Vancouver Drive and Armstrong Street are properly marked. Please help us.

Answer: For requests like this, you need to be proactive.

The city Department of Transportation Services will consider putting in the markings if a "strong majority" of property owners/residents on both sides of the street support putting in the marked stalls AND if the neighborhood board supports the proposal, a city traffic engineer said.

A strong majority is considered to be 90 percent, he said.

Your first step would be to obtain a survey form from the Department of Transportation Services. Call 768-8328.

If you receive the majority support needed, you are advised to present the petition to the Manoa Neighborhood Board, "which will then present it to DTS," the official said.

However, he cautioned that installing marked stalls generally will result in a loss of about one-third of the number of vehicles that can legally park on a roadway.

"This is due to the various size vehicles that must be accommodated in the standard parking design," he said. "Based on past experiences, in areas where there is a demand for on-street parking, residents do not favor the installation of marked stalls once they become aware of this impact."

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Q: Firefighters have the stereotypical image of being the authority you call to rescue a cat stuck in a tree. Have Honolulu firefighters ever been called to perform such a task? Do they accept such calls?

A: Yes, they have rescued stranded animals, but they will respond to such calls on a "case-by-case basis," fire spokesman Capt. Kenison Tejada said.

"On occasion, we do (respond to animal rescues), as long as we have an apparatus available," he said.

Tejada emphasized, however, that "that's not saying we will respond to every single call."

The Fire Communications Center will gather the information "and dispatch accordingly," Tejada said.

He explained that many times an animal may be "stuck and it's a situation where either they're in danger or they won't be able to get themselves out. ... Part of that, we consider if the owners may get themselves in trouble if they try to make their own rescue."

Although it's called the Honolulu Fire Department, the department responds to all kinds of "service calls -- service calls pretty much on a case-by-case basis, depending on what it is," he said.

The Honolulu Fire Department's mission statement "is to respond to fires, emergency medical incidents, hazardous materials incidents, and rescues on land and sea to save lives, property and the environment."