Traffic woes to increase
with UH back in session

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By Lisa Asato
lasato@starbulletin.com

Commuters beware.

Crunch time is here as the school year officially starts tomorrow for more than 40,000 University of Hawaii and other students -- adding to the 82,000 others who have already started classes.

"We expect a lot more cars on the road, and we expect a longer, slower commute," said Marilyn Kali, state Department of Transportation spokeswoman. "We're hopeful that people will leave a little earlier or a little later and will think about ride sharing."

Since the last week in July, about 82,000 public and private school students in Honolulu have gone back to school.

Staggered schedules for public schools on year-round systems have helped make traffic congestion less abrupt, said state Department of Education spokesman Greg Knudsen.

"I don't think it's like one morning you're breezing through traffic, and the next day it's bumper to bumper," he said. "We haven't really experienced that."

Knudsen had no figures on how many of the state's 183,000 public school students have already returned to school. Students on the traditional calendar were scheduled to have started Wednesday, but some teachers may have used the first days for professional development and other things, he said. "There's a lot of variation in opening of schools this year," he said. "Monday will be the latest for all schools to be in session."

Knudsen said the bigger factor on traffic will be the return of more than 40,000 University of Hawaii students.

Commuter John Whalen of Mililani plans to make adjustments, even if it means less sleep.

He plans to get up at 5:15 a.m. instead of 6 starting tomorrow, when his daughter Victoria attends the first day of second grade at Punahou School.

"We have to leave at 6:30 to get there at 8 at the latest," he said. "You have to average in 30 to 45 minutes for accidents."

Kali said accidents and stalls quickly balloon into prolonged delays. "For every minute traffic is blocked or delayed, it takes 10 minutes for us to get back to normal," she said.

To help alleviate traffic, the Transportation Department will not be closing freeway lanes during the day through Wednesday. And the City and County of Honolulu will be monitoring traffic from its central station and making the necessary adjustments to traffic lights, Kali said.

She said the department spent about $50,000 to advertise its "Beat the School Jam" campaign and that 19 new Vanpools have gone into operation in the last month.

Take a detour In observance of the state Department of Transportation's "Beat the School Jam - It's a Jungle Out There," there will be no daytime freeway lane closures through Wednesday. Other lane closures Monday through Friday are as follows: >> Harding Avenue between 1st and Kapahulu avenues; lane closures and detours for seismic retrofit work from 7:30 a.m. to 3 p.m. >> Right lane of Punahou overpass makai-bound closed 24 hours daily; barrier work and utility relocation. >> Piikoi Street onramp to the H-1 freeway eastbound and one lane of the H-1 freeway Punahou Street offramp, closed Thursday and Friday, 8:30 a.m. to 2:30 p.m.; offramp widening work. >> Left lane of Lunalilo Street between Lunalilo Street onramp and Ward Avenue closed 9 a.m. to 3 p.m.; highway lighting work. >> H-1 freeway westbound, King Street offramp and Old Waialae Road overpass closed Thursday and Friday, 9 a.m. to 3 p.m.; guardrail work. >> Ward Avenue center lane, mauka-bound, closed Thursday, 9 a.m. to 3 p.m.; striping work. >> Piikoi Street, left-turn lane onto Lunalilo Street, closed Thursday, 9 a.m. to 3 p.m.; striping work. >> Westbound right lane closures, H-1 freeway Punahou Street overpass, 9 a.m. to 5 a.m.