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Why residents don’t like
Lunalilo onramp project

Residents of Makiki, Punchbowl and Manoa were outraged during the Department of Transportation's informational briefing on April 28, announcing that the Lunalilo onramp closure would be permanent. Director Rod Haraga did not address, or even acknowledge, the effect the 10-month closure has had on public safety in this area.

Administrators of St. Clement's School and Royal Elementary have voiced concerns about increased traffic around their campuses since the onramp diversion. The principal of Royal Elementary reported that one DOT official received a suggestion that the Punchbowl/Vineyard Street crosswalk be eliminated to improve the flow of traffic. The principal explained that removing it would mean that parents and children would need to use two to three crosswalks in the same intersection to get to school.

Parents with children attending Makiki schools express frustration about their children's safety and the difficulty of dropping them off in the morning. Even with St. Clement's teachers running outside to collect the 3- or 4-year-olds being dropped off in the midst of Wilder Avenue traffic, parents have a difficult time getting their preschoolers onto campus. During the March 16 DOT meeting, residents heard Haraga state that if parents didn't like the traffic, St. Clement's should simply change its school hours.

Makiki residents have observed that the diversion has pushed more traffic onto area side streets. About half of pedestrian traffic fatalities in Hawaii are people 65 and older and, according to the 2000 census, nearly one in five Makiki, Punchbowl and Ala Moana residents fit into this category. During the March 28 DOT meeting, one Makiki resident asked what DOT intended to do to protect these elderly residents. The subject was changed, and the safety question was never answered.

District legislators repeatedly notified DOT officials about the potential safety hazards of the diversion and requested alternative solutions. The requests -- in July and November 2004 and April 2005 -- remain unanswered. DOT has maintained that the diversion is the only way to solve the traffic congestion at the Lunalilo onramp and has not addressed recommendations for alternatives.

For example, other transportation experts proposed a freeway fly-over ramp to separate incoming and outgoing traffic in the 1995 Waikiki Regional Traffic Impact Plan, or have suggested ramp metering, a common and economical solution in other states.

Reports on the costs of the onramp diversion have been mixed. Some TV reports have said it would cost between $600,000 and $800,000 annually, while DOT says its costs have run about $200,000 so far. By comparison, ramp metering is estimated to cost $200,000 to $300,000 annually. A more long-term solution to the congestion problem is the freeway fly-over recommended in 1995. Ten-year-old cost estimates sound expensive at about $30 million, but make a lot more sense when evaluated over a 30- to 40-year period.

Makiki, Punchbowl and Manoa residents are angry that Haraga is not addressing legitimate safety questions. Residents and district legislators have asked DOT to work with the city's Department of Transportation Services to do what seems straightforward: to adopt an alternative solution that benefits both east Honolulu and Makiki residents without endangering pedestrians and moving congestion onto Makiki streets.

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