From a traffic safety and quality of service perspective, an Environmental Assessment should be required for this project because the cumulative effect of traffic lane losses in Waikiki has never been assessed comprehensively and issues with turning radii and the narrow bike lane adjacent to heavy traffic flow and frequent parking maneuvers need to be examined.
Major changes have taken place or are being implemented on all three east-west thoroughfares in Waikiki:
- Kalakaua Avenue: one lane was removed along Kuhio beach.
- Kuhio Avenue: width reduction and left-turn lane elimination.
- Ala Wai Boulevard: permanent removal of one lane which until recently was open to weekday morning and afternoon traffic flow in peak periods.
Although the combination of all these changes will have significant impacts to traffic flow and transportation services throughout Waikiki, the piecemeal implementation of them appears to be designed to circumvent established environmental assessment requirements.
The combination of these changes warrants a detailed traffic analysis to assess:
- Delays and intersection level-of-service (LOS) from the removal of roadway capacity on weekday peak periods and weekend evenings.
- Impacts on people and freight movements in Waikiki. Efficient transportation service for people and goods is essential in Waikiki.
- Removal of free parking. Parking in Waikiki is a major issue and the absence of free parking creates a divide between local and outside visitors.
- Delays for emergency response services (ambulance, fire, police) due to fewer and narrower lanes and worsened overall congestion levels.
- Road capacity issues during emergency evacuations.
- Safety and other impacts of proposed bikeways which conflict with pedestrian movements and parked vehicles.
It is my expectation that the traffic conditions at several intersections in Waikiki will deteriorate from historical good-to-acceptable level-of-service B, C and D to unacceptable level-of-service E and F.
Government is supposed to strive to provide level-of-service D or better on public roadways, but here we have a case of government deliberately worsening the level-of-service to potentially unacceptable levels.
This is occurring in an area that is critical to the state’s economy and without a formal assessment, review and public participation.
Panos D. Prevedouros, PhD, is an Associate Professor of Transportation Engineering with the Department of Civil And Environmental Engineering at the University of Hawaii at Manoa. He can be reached via email at mailto:pdp@hawaii.edu
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