Kokua Line
Kokua Line
Question: Is the Handi-Van exempt from compliance of the "no parking, no stopping, no unloading, etc." sign posted on the City Hall side of Punchbowl Street? Every weekday morning, between 5:40 and 6:00, a Handi-Van stops there where the signs are posted to let out a passenger. In the meantime, traffic is stopped because there is only one mauka-bound lane on Punchbowl, with a double-solid line, which means no passing. However, many cars do cross the line because they do not want to wait. One of these days, there will be a head-on collision. What doesn't make sense is that the Handi-Van turns first into the City Hall driveway from King Street, then turns right back on Punchbowl. Why can't the passenger be let out in the driveway? Handi-Van shifts spot
for downtown drop-offAnswer: As you've probably noticed, an alternate drop-off area has since been found. However, inconvenient though it may have been and despite the signs, the driver was not flaunting the law by stopping there, according to Patricia Nielsen, vice-president of para-transit operations for Oahu Transit Services, which operates the Handi-Vans.
In this case, a visually impaired passenger asked to be let off at that spot because it is the closest access to the building the passenger needs to go to, she said.
However, "we're not making that particular stop and blocking the traffic at that time anymore," she said. "We found an alternate location to let the customer off."
Still, Nielsen said, the aim is "to find the safest and the closest access for the customer with a disability to get to the desired location." Oftentimes, that might infringe on traffic, she acknowledged.
It takes anywhere from a minute and a half to three or four minutes, on average, to deboard a passenger in a wheelchair, she said. But she asked for people's patience, because the Handi-Van is "a service for persons with disabilities."
Times warning
If you're a Times Supermarket customer and someone says he or she is calling because you've won a free trip to a Kona resort or a similar prize, either hang up or tell them to get lost.The caller tells people they are eligible to receive the free trip because they've entered a Times' free-car promotion, then tries to get personal financial information, said Tad Fujiwara, of Times' marketing department.
Two different customers have said they were first called by a man, then a second time by a woman, both referring to the Times' promotion and both trying to solicit financial information, he said
But Times is not giving away anything other than a car at the end of the promotion, as well as weekly prizes for a "beef certificate." The only calls being made are to tell weekly prizewinners that they've won a certificate, Fujiwara said. No one is being asked to give personal information, he added.
Mahalo
To Bert, who works at Longs Drugs at Manoa Marketplace. On May 22, after shopping at Longs, I returned home and could not find my purse. I called the store and was told by the general manager that Bert had found it in the parking lot. When I went to pick it up. I asked what I may be able to do for Bert. The manager said it was not necessary and that their employees do not accept gifts of this kind. So I want to say mahalo to Bert and others like him who really have the aloha spirit and do such nice things for people they do not know. May God richly bless him always. -- Harriet D. Rotz
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Call 529-4773, fax 529-4750, or write to Kokua Line,
Honolulu Star-Bulletin, 500 Ala Moana Blvd., No. 7-210,
Honolulu 96813. As many as possible will be answered.
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