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Townbound tunnel The state issued more traffic camera citations to motorists emerging from the Honolulu-bound lanes of the Wilson Tunnel than any other area on Oahu in January, according to a report by the company that operates the traffic camera vans.
lanes hot spot
for photo tickets
695 tickets were given to drivers
Where the citations are
coming out of the Wilson Tunnel
DOT says there is 5-mph graceBy Nelson Daranciang
ndaranciang@starbulletin.comThe 695 citations at that site amounted to 19 percent of the 3,590 tickets issued that month. The state Department of Transportation no longer allows the vans to operate there because of complaints that it is a speed trap.
A spot along the Koko Head-bound lanes of the Moanalua Freeway at the Ala Kapuna Street overpass came in second with 377 citations.
The locations with the most citations were most likely the ones at which the vans were deployed the most, said Marilyn Kali, DOT spokeswoman.
The DOT authorizes the vans to be on the median in one location on the Pali Highway and another spot on the Likelike. The rest of the 25 authorized locations where the vans were deployed in January are on the sides of the roads.
The vans were limited primarily to state roadways in the Honolulu Police Department's Central and Kalihi patrol districts in January because the rural Oahu courts were not ready to handle the photo citations. The department started deploying the vans on rural Oahu roadways last month.
The department also recently added 32 more authorized van locations to the 78 it had posted last month on its Web site (www.state.hi.us/dot/publicaffairs/photoenforcement/sites.htm).
There are 13 sites along the H-3 freeway on both the Windward side and in Halawa Valley; 10 sites along Kamehameha Highway near Radford Drive, in Wahiawa and in Haleiwa; two sites along Farrington Highway in Mokuleia and Waialua; and several sites along Kunia Road near the Anonui Street intersection in Village Park and near Kunia village.
The camera vans operated by Affiliated Computer Services, doing business in Hawaii as ACS State & Local Solutions, photographed 10,339 vehicles exceeding the speed limit in January but issued citations in only 3,590, or 34.7 percent, of the cases, according to the company's report to the DOT.
The DOT is reserving judgment on whether 34.7 percent is a good or bad citation rate.
"This is just one month," Kali said. "There is nothing to base it on."
Reasons why citations were not issued range from the inability to match the driver's license number with the name of the registered owner to situations in which license plates were damaged, obstructed, missing or just not photographed.
Motorists traveling in the right-hand, or "slow," lanes were more likely to get tagged for speeding than motorists traveling in the "fast" lanes, according to an informal survey of 25 people who received photo citations in January.
The 25 people appeared in traffic court Thursday to challenge their citations. Fifteen were traveling in the lane closest to the camera vans, usually the right-hand lane. Nine of the remaining 10 said there were no other vehicles around when their cars were photographed.
The right-hand lanes provide a better angle for the cameras, said Brian Minaai, DOT director.
But, he said, "The operators don't focus on the outer (right-hand) lane; they try and get any car in any lane that's speeding."
The DOT is expected to pay ACS $46,767 for 1,572 citations it was unable to issue because of difficulty in matching the names of the registered owners with their driver's license numbers.
The DOT rejected 830 citations because the pictures were blurred, Minaai said. Another 266 missed the three-day mailing deadline.
In a news release last week, Minaai said there has been a significant decline in the number of traffic crashes in the areas where vans were deployed in January.
"There is very strong evidence that the photo enforcement program is working," Minaai said. "The number of major crashes dropped 14.7 percent from January 2001 to January 2002, and the number of minor crashes dropped 10.2 percent."
Maj. Robert Prasser of the HPD Traffic Division said, "Unbelievable."
The announcement "caught me by surprise," he said, because the DOT figures are based on statistics provided by police and do not consider other factors. Prasser said the announcement also makes no mention of the vans' effect on highway fatalities.
According to figures compiled by HPD, there were 10 traffic fatalities on Oahu roadways in January 2002 compared with four in January 2001.
So far this year, there have been 16 traffic fatalities on Oahu vs. nine for the same period last year.
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Where the citations are
Here's where the traffic camera vans caught speeders and the number of citations issued in January:
Area Checked Speeding Citations Honolulu traffic 151,855 10,339 3,590 H-1 Waianae-bound/Kalihi Street 3,861 43 2 H-1 Waianae-bound/Kamehameha Hwy. overpass 10,088 899 242 H-1 Honolulu-bound/Kamehameha Hwy. overpass 11,826 409 113 Moanalua Freeway, Waianae-bound/Fort Shafter overpass 16,886 1,098 354 Moanalua Freeway, Waianae-bound/Ala Aolani Street 20,164 943 285 Moanalua Freeway, Honolulu-bound/Ala Kapuna Street 15,807 1,209 377 Moanalua Freeway, Honolulu-bound/Puuloa Road overpass 8,270 336 57 Kalanianaole Hwy./Kealahou Street 1,230 22 5 Kalanianaole Hwy./Hawaii Kai Golf Course Access Road 741 10 3 Pali Hwy., Honolulu-bound/Nuuanu Pali Drive 12,598 939 320 Pali Hwy., Honolulu-bound/Nuuanu Pali Drive, North Access 3,945 206 50 Pali Hwy., Honolulu-bound/Homelani Place 2,814 165 39 Pali Hwy., Honolulu-bound/Wyllie Street 5,260 472 225 Pali Hwy./Laimi Road 1,059 48 6 Pali Hwy., Kailua-bound/Nuuanu Pali Drive 1,880 134 43 Pali Hwy., Kailua-bound/Nuuanu Pali Drive, north access 292 15 4 Pali Hwy., Kailua-bound/Nuuanu Pali Drive 6,616 288 121 Likelike Hwy., Honolulu-bound/Wilson Tunnel, Honolulu side 8,646 1,486 695 Likelike Hwy., Honolulu-bound/Burmeister overpass 6,587 316 76 Likelike Hwy./Gulick Avenue 3,569 708 316 Likelike Hwy., Kaneohe-bound/Alu Street 848 124 67 Likelike Hwy., Kaneohe-bound/Burmeister overpass 6,171 410 185 Nimitz Hwy., Waianae-bound/Kukahi Street 2,697 59 5
January totals
Number of citations and reasons why citations were not issued:
Category Total Percent Issued 3,590 34 Calibration failure 0 0 Clarity of plate 1,065 10.3 Control box legibility 0 0 Damaged plate 18 .2 Emergency vehicle 0 0 Environment dark shot 29 .3 Funeral procession 0 0 Glare on plate 119 1.2 No registered owner found 14 .1 Department of Transportation reject 830 8 New plate-no registered owner found 235 2.3 No driver’s license match 2,096 20.3 No flash 34 .3 No plate 229 2.2 No violation occurred 0 0 Notice of transfer 97 .9 Operator error 229 2.2 Operator missed plate 1,273 12.3 Other double picture 3 0 Other green-light second shot 0 0 Out of state 59 .6 Plate obstructed 121 1.2 Time expired 266 2.6 Wide-angle view obstructed 32 .3 Total 10,339 Source: State Department of Transportation
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State Transportation spokeswoman Marilyn Kali says motorists will not receive a photo-speeding citation for traveling up to 5 mph over the speed limit. Camera tickets to allow
5-mph grace, DOT saysAssociated Press
The state previously refused to say if a threshold exists when citing motorists, although photo tickets contested in court showed no citations were issued below 6 mph.
"You will not get one for going one mile over, two miles over, three miles over, four miles over or five miles," Kali said. "So, take that for what it's worth."
Two state judges, however, have dismissed tickets issued to motorists who were going less than 10 miles per hour over the speed limit.
Kali's comments were made at a Pearl Harbor Rotary Club meeting yesterday to build community support for the controversial program.
"As people get used to driving more slowly, I think some of the opposition will fade away," she said.
Rotary Club members complained that the speed limits are too low and that the camera vans pose a hazard on the roadways.
Kali said the state is looking into both concerns.
The full House last week sent to the Senate a bill that would modify the 2-month-old traffic camera enforcement program.
The approval of the measure came after lawmakers defeated a floor amendment proposed by House Republicans that would repeal the three-year pilot program.