Mayor Bryan Baptiste unveiled on Friday a four-part plan he hopes will slow down speeding and reckless driving on Kaua‘i roads.
Baptiste said the plan, if fully implemented, may significantly mitigate potential traffic hazards now faced by residents.
During a meeting with reporters held at his office in the Lihu‘e Civic Center, Baptiste said the plan encompasses improved law enforcement, legislation, public education and awareness programs and possible installation of speed humps and bumps and other structures to slow down traffic through neighborhoods.
“This initiative is in response to an outcry from the community about island-wide speeding problems,” Baptiste said in a statement. “It is a recurring problem, over and over. Every community has this problem.”
If safety measures aren’t put in place, more traffic-related deaths or serious injuries may occur on Kaua‘i in the future, the mayor intimated.
The issue of speeding in neighborhoods came up repeatedly during Ka Leo O Kauai community meetings, according to Tim Bynum, a county employee and leader of the program. Baptiste initiated the Ka Leo O Kauai program as a way to get public input on issues that are of importance to a community, and to have government officials and residents work together to resolve or alleviate a problem.
Baptiste said it seems to him that people’s immediate response to speeding problems is to have the streets canvassed with more police patrol cars.
That strategy won’t work because of manpower limitations of the Kaua‘i Police Department and limited county funds, Baptiste said.
Efforts instead will be focused on other forms of law enforcement that could be as effective as police officers patrolling the streets of the island, Baptiste said.
He said the alternatives include the use of speed display boards followed up by enforcement; traffic data collection devices; stalker radar; neighborhood speed watch programs and having patrol officers drive around with overhead vehicle “blue lights” on.
Baptiste and Bynum also said county officials are planning to buy two small speed display boards to tell motorists when they are speeding.
The boards are like larger speed device boards that are used on state highways, but are smaller and can be attached to sign posts on county roads.
Community residents standing by such devices, or using radar to detect speeds, will be making a strong statement that speeding will not be tolerated in their neighborhoods, Baptiste said.
Baptiste said residents who currently post wooden safety signs in their neighborhoods, or stand by them are doing a good job in warning speeding motorists, and he commended their efforts.
The small display board devices also can be used with traffic data collection devices or by themselves, Baptiste and Bynum said.
Stalker radar also can help curb speeding, they said. The Kaua‘i Police Department plans to buy six such devices for patrol units, according to county documents Baptiste presented at the meeting.
The devices can tell police officers the speeds of vehicles they are following or vehicles that are approaching patrol cars. The running of “blue lights” atop patrol cars also can help deter speeding, Bynum said. When Calvin Fujita was police chief more than a decade ago, he had his officers run the blue lights as they patrolled Kaua‘i streets, projecting a “police presence” that probably helped to deter speeding and criminal activities, Bynum said.
Interest waned, but now a directive has been issued to have KPD officers employ the same strategy, Baptiste said.
Baptiste also said county officials are looking at positioning unoccupied, higher-mileage police vehicles on the road as another way to deter speeding.
Bynum said “a variation” of that strategy has been to have KPD officers park patrol vehicles by their homes or strategically park their vehicles at certain spot in their neighborhoods.
The strategy, which is part of KPD’s vehicle take-home program, has helped to curb speeding in Wailua Houselots, Bynum said.
Educating the public about the county traffic safety plan also could help relieve speeding or reckless driving in neighborhoods, Baptiste said.
Through a neighborhood speed watch program, residents can jot down the license plate numbers of speeding vehicles and hand the information over to KPD. Baptiste said. “It is almost like a neighborhood watch program (to guard against burglaries of homes),” he said.
Parents may not know their children or family members are speeding, but once they get the notice from KPD, they can discreetly tell family members to slow down, thereby avoiding a date in court, Baptiste said.
Bynum said a public awareness program should be done periodically, much like the “ClickIt or Ticket” program of the KPD, thus helping to encourage motorists not to speed.
The two other parts of the county’s traffic safety plan include:
• Construction of speed humps, speed tables or raised crosswalks.
County laws and federal standards currently don’t allow speed humps on collector roads, Baptiste said.
Those roads are generally those that have speed limits over 25 miles-an-hour and connect to highways.
Speed humps are found in only a few place on the island, including Niumalu.
The county has an ordinance that outlines procedures community residents must follow in requesting the placement of speed humps in their neighborhoods, Baptiste said. Speed tables and raised crosswalks also could be considered for feeder roads, those that generally have speed limits of 25 miles-an-hour or less, he said.
A county ordinance, however, would have to be enacted to have speed tables installed, Baptiste said.
•A final component of the county traffic safety plan may involve passing of a new law that would require any new subdivision or development to include “traffic calming elements,” as part of any county approval of a project. Baptiste said.
They include the speed humps, speed tables, raised crosswalks, roundabouts and mini-traffic circles, Baptiste said.
This requirement would save the county from having to use its own funds to put those improvements in after a residential project, for instance, is completed, he said. The burden of paying for the speed-halting structures would then fall on the shoulders of developers, Baptiste said. Baptiste said the county’s traffic safety plan came about as a result of his work with KPD; the Kaua‘i County Department of Public Works; Office of the County Attorney, a community response team and public information officer Cyndi Ozaki.
Baptiste said the plan will most likely be amended as more community input is brought forth to county officials.
Lester Chang, staff writer, can be reached at 245-3681 (ext. 225) and lchang@pulitzer.net
