[ OUR OPINION ]

To ease traffic jams,
every little bit helps

THE ISSUE Transit officials again consider switching the directions of Pensacola and Piikoi streets.

FRUSTRATED motorists may view switching the directions of two one-way streets in urban Honolulu as treating a hang-nail on a broken foot, but city and state transit officials should not be deterred from considering as many small changes as necessary to improve the flow of traffic.

The minor alteration would send traffic makai on Piikoi Street and mauka on Pensacola and if the change speeds the flow of cars in the congested area, it will be worth the effort. Drivers accustomed to going in the opposite directions on those roadways will just have to get used to it.

The idea that has been batted around for more than a decade is one of several that transportation officials are examining to get cars on and off the H-1 faster. Closing off the Lunalilo onramp to the freeway during certain hours is another.

Critics say neither will help because the same number of cars will be on the roads no matter what. Still, because Pensacola is closer to the Lunalilo onramp while Piikoi is a block Diamond Head, some of the cross-current would be eliminated. Routing west-bound freeway entrance to the Punchbowl onramp while closing the Lunalilo onramp would reduce the clog -- not to mention the danger -- of cars trading spaces on the two freeway lanes that also serve as the Vineyard Boulevard exit, the primary conduit to downtown.

Until trial runs are conducted, no one can predict the results of these changes since traffic movement is contingent on myriad factors, some consistent, others not. Traffic flow in the area is exacerbated by the lack of choices for freeway exit and entry in the densely populated Makiki district. Widening the Punahou offramp -- a key exit for Makiki, Manoa, McCully and Pawaa motorists -- has relieved some of congestion, but back-ups on the freeway aren't unusual during Honolulu's almost constant rush hour.

Short of draconian measures -- like banning drivers from the roads on alternate days or limiting the number of cars in a household or waiting for construction of a mass transit system -- government officials have few choices for traffic fixes. And while Band-Aid approaches aren't the best options, officials should look over a range of short-term solutions as they consider the long-term fixes. Every little bit helps.

---

BACK TO TOP
|

Men shouldn’t begrudge
females a rare golf dare

THE ISSUE Hawaii's Michelle Wie will follow Annika Sorenstam in challenging men in the professional golf arena.

MICHELLE Wie will be casting an interested eye on Fort Worth, Texas, this week. The 13-year-old Hawaii golf prodigy will join the rest of the golf world in putting the microscope on Annika Sorenstam as she becomes the first woman since Babe Zaharias in 1945 to compete in a Professional Golf Association Tour event, the Colonial. Wie has similar plans to compete with men at the professional level, and the men should worry about her more than Sorenstam.

Wie has accepted similar sponsors' exemptions to play in men's events on the Canadian tour in August and the Nationwide Tour, the PGA's minor league, in September. Playing against men instead of women "is just the same because to me it is just a tournament," says Wie, a 6-footer who can blast the ball more than 300 yards with accuracy. "The course is just longer."

Sorenstam has learned it is not just the same for men on the PGA tour, who are grumbling about her presence in Fort Worth. Vijay Singh, two-time major champion, has complained that the world's No. 1 woman golfer "doesn't belong out here" and has wished that she misses the weekend cut. Other PGA tour members have voiced similar sentiments less loudly.

The men should not be so grumpy. The 32-year-old native of Sweden, who may be the best female golfer in history, has indicated this will be a one-time occasion, so she poses no long-term threat. "I'm simply testing myself," she says. "I'm not trying to prove anything to anybody." Although the 7,080-yard Colonial Country Club course is fairly short for the PGA tour, it is about 700 yards longer than the average LPGA course.

"It's like Michelle Wie played in the Nabisco," says Sorenstam. Wie not only made the cut in the Kraft Nabisco Championship, this year's first LPGA major, but she joined Sorenstam in the final group on the last day. "Why is a 13-year-old girl playing? Because she wants the experience. I want to play under very tough conditions and learn something about myself."

Wie, the Punahou eighth-grader, already has competed in nearly a dozen men's events, tying for fourth in one Hawaii amateur tournament. She was six strokes behind earning a spot in the Sony Open earlier this year, even though defeating some golfers who play on the Nationwide Tour. In Wie, the men will have someone to fear sooner than they might expect.