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Kokua Line June Watanabe |
New airport signs
will be reworded
after outcryGood news for airport-goers: The state Department of Transportation is moving to reword those confusing signs that went up at Honolulu Airport just last year.
Airports Administrator Davis Yogi hopes to have the simple terms "departures'" and "arrivals" reinstated on the airport's main signs by the end of the year, at the latest.
The problem was that the new signs, in an attempt to be more specific by saying "ticketing" and "baggage claim," ended up confounding people with just a few seconds to decide which way to go when entering the airport.
Plus, the garish fluorescent-green/yellow color that ended up on many of the signs offended a lot of people's sensibilities, including The Outdoor Circle's.
However, the colors won't change for now, because it would be too expensive to completely redo the signs.
As it is, it will cost $140,000 to reword a total of 28 signs on the ground and second level of the airport, Yogi said. "Part of the work is climbing up, taking (a sign) down, changing the letters and putting it back up."
The same contractor who put up to new signs will do the work, which will involve a change order, Yogi said.
Asked how the fluorescent color was chosen, Yogi said it was meant to "enhance the signs' visibility under low light conditions," as well as help save energy. "It was designed to reduce the need for high energy light fixtures to illuminate the signs," he said.
COURTESY OF THE DEPARTMENT OF TRANSPORTATION
The state Department of Transportation is moving to reinstate the terms "departures" and "arrivals" on the Honolulu Airport's main signs. They are looking at proposals for the new signs; above is one option. The current airport signs, which went up last year, ended up confusing people with the words "ticketing" and "baggage claim."
He said both the color and the 3M reflective sign material works well in ambient light conditions.
With a warranty of seven to 10 years, there also is an investment in quality that makes officials reluctant to change the color, Yogi said.
The proposal is to reword the first main sign greeting airport visitors to say "Departures Keep Left" and "Arrivals Keep Right."
The sign will remain a color that Yogi described as "highway green." That's the color of most of the state's highway signs and is meant as a transition color as vehicles enter the airport.
Getting closer to the airport buildings, the sign will be reworded to note "Departures Check-In, Parking, Rental Car Return" and Arrivals Baggage Claim."
Yogi said that the signs were changed last year after airport "stakeholders" -- groups that have an interest in the airport -- met and decided they needed to be more specific to guide airport visitors (see Kokua Line, March 4).
Unfortunately, he said, the public was not consulted before the changes were made.
COURTESY OF THE DEPARTMENT OF TRANSPORTATION
The state Department of Transportation is moving to reinstate the terms "departures" and "arrivals" on the Honolulu Airport's main signs. They are looking at proposals for the new signs; above is another option. The current airport signs, which went up last year, ended up confusing people with the words "ticketing" and "baggage claim."
After reading about and hearing a lot of complaints about the new signs, Yogi, who took over as airports administrator in November after the new signs were in place, decided to take the public outcry to heart.
Regarding the wording, officials tried to find a "compromise, because Hawaii has three types of travelers -- international, domestic and resident," he said.
"We're accommodating the residents by listening to their concerns and putting back 'arrivals' and 'departures' so they don't get lost," he said.
Officials also did consider concerns that "ticketing" may not be the best term, and that "check-in" made more sense.
"Most people, we think, already have their tickets so they don't need new ticketing," Yogi said.
This time around, he added, officials want to make sure they get public feedback. It's one thing to complain, but "when we're asking for feedback, there's also a responsibility to let us know if we are on the right track."
Yogi says he wants people to let the DOT know if the proposed rewording of the signs are clear and specific enough to guide airport visitors to the right destinations.
You can send your comments to Scott Ishikawa, Department of Transportation, 869 Punchbowl St., Honolulu, HI 96813 (Attention: Airport Signs), or e-mail Ishikawa at dotpao@exec.state.hi.us.
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