PHOTO COURTESY OF KITV Critics of the photo enforcement system are exploring new ways to express their displeasure. This photo from a videotape dropped off anonymously at KITV shows sign-wavers blocking the view from a photo van. The camera operator seemed to take it all in stride, deciding to eat his lunch while the protestors blocked his view.

State reins in
photo vans

The DOT says photo enforcement will not
concentrate on areas viewed as speed traps

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By Crystal Kua
ckua@starbulletin.com

You'll see those speed enforcement camera vans less frequently outside the Pali Highway tunnels or at other locations where it is easy to catch people driving above the speed limit.

Complaints about the controversial vans are prodding the state Department of Transportation to make changes to the program in an announcement scheduled tentatively for today.

Transportation Director Brian Minaai said yesterday that he hopes the modifications will help the "infamous" program be more acceptable to the public.

"We're not in it to make money," Minaai said. "Safety is our program."

DENNIS ODA / DODA@STARBULLETIN.COM Ron Holden was being a good Samaritan when he stopped his car on the median of the Pali Highway in Nuuanu and asked the operator of the traffic camera van if he needed help. He even placed a flare behind the van to warn oncoming traffic. After he left, a police officer arrived, spoke with the van driver, and soon afterward, the van left.

But a Windward state lawmaker who has complained that the vans' location outside the Pali tunnels was unsafe says the department is not doing enough to quell public concern about the program.

"The DOT is beginning to listen, but they should take the whole program back and reassess it," said Rep. Cynthia Thielen (R, Kailua), who is not a member of the House Transportation Committee.

"Stop the program. Reassess it in a comprehensive way, and if you're going to do it, do it right," she said after the hearing.

Minaai appeared before the Transportation Committee yesterday and told lawmakers about some of the changes to the program.

Up to two of the four vans currently will be out past 10 p.m. and in the early morning to discourage incidents like road racing that occur during those hours, he said.

DENNIS ODA / DODA@STARBULLETIN.COM A misunderstanding yesterday led to some confusion involving a parked traffic photo van on the Pali Highway median. The attention apparently prompted the van driver to move.

The public will be given specific locations on where the vans are instead of a general area.

Minaai also said the department is currently reviewing existing speed limits.

"We will be issuing a comprehensive package that hopefully will give everybody the locations and the thrust of our program," he said.

Minaai also said the department will not be putting the vans at perceived speed traps or places where the speed limit changes drastically.

"We're carefully evaluating that, and we've since eliminated some of those areas where the transition could be construed to be speed traps or even locations where these could be construed to be a speed trap," Minaai said.

Rep. David Pendleton (R, Enchanted Lake) asked about enforcing speed limits in similar areas like the Pali tunnels, which Windward residents use to get to and from Honolulu.

"In fact, those camera vans that are in the proximity of the tunnels, we're carefully evaluating effectiveness and the perception of speed traps, and thus we may be moving some of those," Minaai said.

One area of greatest concern, he said, is in the Nuuanu residential area, where there are a lot of pedestrian activity and side streets and where several fatal accidents involving speed have occurred.

"So we're looking at redeploying those vans to those locations to have a most effective enforcement than out by the tunnels."

Pendleton said he thought that move was reasonable.

"My interest is not to find ways in which my constituents can break the law; that's not my goal. I want safety, they want safety, but we're looking for ways in which this can be done fairly and equitably and reasonably."

But Thielen said that the modifications being made are superficial.

"Band-Aid approaches are not going to solve the speeding problems. They are not going to solve the problem of excessive and dangerous speed."

Thielen said she also took exception to a comment by the governor, who said that Windward drivers are "a big problem in terms of speeding."

But Thielen replied, "Commuters from the Windward side are not the problem, are not the speeding problem."

Minaai also hinted that the vans will begin to be assigned to areas with a high number of accidents -- areas that the vans did not reach before -- such as Farrington Highway along the Leeward Coast.

Minaai also acknowledged that veteran transportation spokeswoman Marilyn Kali is taking a less public role in explaining the program.

"Marilyn is still with our office. She is the program manager. However, because of the heightened level of public attention and media attention to this, it has been elevated to my level," Minaai said.

"Because of that, I'm much more involved and my deputies are much more involved in answering your media questions."