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Not always illegal
to park at red curb

Question: I've called police at 911 about cars parking at the intersection of Likini and Aila streets in Salt Lake, where there are bus stops. The city painted the curb red on both sides to prevent any parking. The painting was done just last month. The problem is that the buses can't make the turn there easily if there are cars parked there. It's actually a hazard. But when I talked to police, they said they do not enforce the red-painted curb -- that it doesn't mean a thing. So why paint the curb red if that doesn't mean anything?

Answer: It's true that red curbs now don't legally mean you can't park there unless there are accompanying "no parking" signs.

Because of budget constraints, the city stopped painting no-parking areas red along curbs several years ago, except to help delineate bus stops and at passenger and commercial loading zones.

Vehicles other than authorized buses are prohibited from stopping or parking at bus stops that have been "officially designated and appropriately signed as such" (Sec. 15-15.4 of the Revised Ordinances of Honolulu).

While there is a bus stop on Likini Street, the problem is that someone painted the curb red from that stop "all the way around the turn onto Aila Street and down Aila Street quite a ways," according to Lt. Kevin Katamoto of the Honolulu Police Department.

But city officials can't expect police to enforce the no-parking restriction on Aila Street because "the red curb (extending to Aila) is improper," he said.

Katamoto explained that the 75 feet allotted for a bus stop does not include a turn onto another street. "The bus stop theoretically ends when the street turns into another street," he said.

If the city wants to prevent parking on Aila because of wide turns by large buses and expect police to enforce it, officials need to post a "No Parking Here to Corner" or similar sign, he said.

In HPD's view, vehicles parked along the red curb on Aila Street are not violating any traffic or parking laws.

"It would only be a violation if they were parked to obstruct turns or create a traffic hazard obstructing the safe turning area for vehicles," Katamoto said. "As it appears, the officers do not see these vehicles as causing any problems for safe turns."

After hearing Katamoto's explanation, city transportation officials also looked into the situation and acknowledged HPD was correct in its assessment.

It's uncertain how or why the curb onto Aila got painted, said Glenn Moir, a transportation planner with the city Department of Transportation Services.

But it doesn't matter at this point, he said. "We're going to work with our traffic engineering (staff) ... to straighten it out. Whatever is appropriate, we will get it fixed."

That end result could be a "No Parking" sign posted along Aila Street, but exactly how much of a restriction there might be will have to be determined, Moir said.

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