Oahu Bike Plan

The Oahu Bicycle Master Plan is holding its second round of workshops this and next week. The extensive study to come up with a policy for Oahu's next bike plan is being done by Halbert Hastert & Fee, an independent agency commissioned by the City and County of Honolulu.  

The attendees at Thursday's meeting at the Neal Blaisdell represented all age groups. The audience was fit, many having biked to the meeting. Many had their bike helmets beside them and some had the telltale enormous bike bags slung over their shoulders. There was a sizable representation from Cycle Manoa, a group that recycles old bicycle parts and encourages bicycling in the community. The group was predominantly Caucasian, and as you started to talk to many of them, if became clear that most of the group were not kama'ainas. That is, most were familiar with a biking lifestyle having lived in more bicycling-friendly cities elsewhere. And they were there at the meeting because Oahu leaves something to be desired when it comes to bicycling. The group included an even spattering of recreational cyclists, those who bike to run errands (that would be me); the most vocal among the group seemed to be the commuters. 

 

Tom Fee started the meeting off with a presentation and general overview. Representing one percent of the total commuting population on Oahu (3,800 cyclists/333,000 motorists daily), Oahu's percentage of bicycling commuters is roughly twice the national average.  Fee presented some of the ideas proposed in the first round of workshops--online bike route maps, way-finding signage. The audience spontaneously oohed and aahed over the idea of a bike route that would circle the entire island.  I was pretty into the idea of a bike route connecting "the parks", Diamond Head, Kapiolani Park all the way to Ala Moana Beach Park and Aloha Tower. After Fee's introduction, we broke out into small groups, from which the study would be getting their community input. 

Primary among all the groups' concerns was safety. One person in the group, an older Caucasian, had taught bicycling safety for some 20 years. Another person in my group, an avid cyclist who perhaps wasn't so interested in safety still had the wound dressings on his hand from his last accident and complained bitterly of the police officer who couldn't understand why he had to go down the middle of Kamehameha Highway at 40 mph. And while I make fun of this person, I think that the laws are broken by cyclists because the facilities (that is, the lanes) are not there for us/them to move from point to point safely. 

It's a funny thing though. When I am on a bike, I sneer at the lazy drivers in their car who refuse to move over two inches even though they're going 50 mph and have a whole extra lane next to them. Yet when I am in my car, I can't help but roll my eyes in impatience at the cyclist going 5 mph in front of me. Couldn't he ride on the sidewalk? The truth is the best place to bike, that is, the place you're going to get the smoothest fastest ride is the same place where the car wants to be. Whereas Oahu's sidewalks are riddled with cracks and uneven surfaces, Oahu's generally well-maintained asphault roads get you where you want to go (on a bike) faster and more efficiently than any other route. And so the bumper sticker goes: share the road, and yet in Oahu any no one wants to, not even me! 

As for specific routes, the organizers of the event had prospective routes running from Ewa to town, along through the middle of town (a dream for many!), through the existing route on Kalanianaole all the way to Kailua and connecting Kailua with Kaneoehe. The ambitiousness of the map made you wonder if any of it was actually going to happen. 

Specific roads earmarked as concerns by attendees included Kapahulu; more than one group expressed the need for a route from UH-Manoa to Waikiki. To my surprise, people brought up Waialae which I myself have struggled to bike on. I thought I was the only one!   

People were hopeful that the rail transit would help improve the feasability and attractiveness of biking on Oahu and yet the current transit map does not even include a stop at UH-Manoa, that institution whose calendar dictates the ebb and flow of Oahu's traffic! 

Whereas the first meeting was aimed at generating ideas, frustrations came to the surface a little more readily at this meeting. There was much talk of just getting something--anything--done and of the "low-hanging fruit", that easily-implemented plan which would provide the most benefit for the least cost. 

One of the representatives from Helbert Hastert & Fee explained that everything they we were working on was a plan and that implementation of the plan was going to require political action; he urged all of us to contact our city council person and state representatives. 

The next meeting will be held at the Pali Golf Course on Tues., Oct. 21 from 6:30-8:30. If you are interested in getting on the study's mailing list, email: tjosephson@hhf.com.