Visitors - Driving, Traffic

[Bud]

The origianl post to this topic is my one sided view from a long time local, not claiming to be an expert on anything. In fact I'm looking for, and encourage constructive contributions, criticism, etc., from local and visitor perspectives to this subject. With some fine tuning over time and input from you people, perhaps this may be helpful in some way. Drive and Surf with Aloha!

-Bud

Driving in town is a lost cause, so I write this aimed mostly at visitors driving to the North Shore.

Quaint, no passing two lane roads through the pineapple fields (Especially Kam Highway between Wahiawa and Haleiwa.), scenic rural areas, help to “Keep the country, COUNTRY” .... but .... other than circling the whole island, there are no alternate routes- only one road in and out. With thousands of daily visitors coming to see the sights, the slightest unnecessary slow down or stop brings traffic to a crawl. Huge surf, surf contests or a minor fender bender can sometimes make it literally impassable for hours.

Picture yourself cruising along Kam Highway at 35mph (speed limit 45), rental car packed with the happy family gazing at the beautiful scenery .... notice the miles of straight empty highway ahead of you, line of cars whizzing past in the other direction, notice the guy in your rearview mirror about to drive into your back seat, notice the mile long train of cars bumper to bumper behind him .... If it’s safe - PULL OVER and take pictures stopped from a safe place!

It’s true that our economy is dependent on your $$$ and we are grateful ... but imagine you at your home, daily driving to/from work, or a few mile hop over to the only food store in town always faced with a backup of bumper to bumper traffic because of rental cars driving sooooo %$#@ slow, filming pineapples, the ocean, etc, form a barely moving vehicle. You may be on vacation, but, have some consideration and courtesy to the people who often have to work 2-3 jobs to support themselves and family. Obviously the benefits are great - but for most of us the cost of living in ‘paradise’ is very high.

[HMARK]

All freetime for locals is PRECIOUS time.....

True dat --- Bud!

[LGREANZ]

traffic on this rock can be horendous, even lead to mental disturbance and sick thoughts of going postal. Before Xmas there was a fatality on H-1,
and they closed H-1 from both 78 and the airport. The traffic was diverted thru Aiea and all vehicles were now forced to travel via Kam Hwy to get to the North and to the West. Unfortunatley I was heading to work in Aiea at the time and was stuck in the gridlock. It took me 2.5 hours to go from Kaiser hospital on Red Hill to Pearl Ridge mall , a whopping distance of about 4 miles. I was cursing and really pissed off but when I heard that a lady had passed away my stress and frustration was so insignificant.

my problem was that through the entire altercation I only saw 3 cop cars, and there job was to block access to H-1. They stood in the shade under the freeway talkling story and laughing as thousands of us were stuck and frustrated. Through all the gridlock there was not one cop directing traffic. Any city I have ever been to has traffic cops that direct traffic at busy intersection durirng rush hour and help move the traffic when there is some incident or situatuion.

So theres your answer, post a cop at Lanis, Waimea , Pipe and Sunset to herd the tourist like cattle and make folks think twice about ruber necking.

I doubt this will ever happen because the majority of police personnel I've been lucky enough to encounter while on this island are lazy , ingnorant and really don't care.

You can blame it on the toursits, but since they will come and they are responsible for fueling the economy maybe we need the state to help manage problems like these.

[Bud]

Me and Rich got stuck in traffiic that slowed to a stop n crawl about 2 miles west of Lanis yesterday. The 20 minutes it took to get past Lanis motivated me to finally start this topic. There could be no argument that the traffic was caused by the domino effect of the slowdown of people/tourists driving past Lanis.

Despite the warning signs posted, if you've been up there recently, you've probably seen that Laniakea has exploded into the 'pet the sea turtle' tourist spot of the state. Additional result is hundreds of tourists now settle at the beach for fun in the sun & surf. Yesterday I was shocked to see that it looked like a typical day at Ala Moana beach park or Waikiki, no kidding. The people who don't actually stop, slow to a crawl to film from their cars. The traffic was backed up all the way past the lighted intersection near Puena Pt. then it 'miraculously' clears up the instant you pass the bus stop at Lanis.

It's the first 'opening' that allows the ocean to be visible from the road; True that tourists are not the sole cause of the slowdowns, as surfers checking the surf are guilty too, myself included

We talked about how even one policeman or other official directing the flow of traffic/pedestrians could have delt with the problem, for this particular instance at least. .

I suppose the reality is that it's only going to get worse

[s9joe]

It was like that today too...

[maleko]

it's Bush's fault.




driving from makaha to town in traffic for 4 hours total/day, isn't as bad as riding the #40 at 2am in da mornin'.

[LGREANZ]

whats the #40 ?

[Rich]

nice breasssstss maleko!