New store opening example of not planning for extra traffic
I’m an extreme advocate in calling for creative management of our traffic situation on Kauai. I believe there are better reasons than to just give in to spending hundreds of millions on more roads. We truly haven’t explored and created all the avenues open to our eyes that with better creative management, we can prolong Kauai to remain the pristine place that it is.
We have an example traffic situation that now exists because of the opening of the new Ross Dress for Less store in Kapaa. There is so much traffic backed up in the parking lot that you can’t enter the parking lot or only one or two cars can get out if turning left because of the traffic signal on Kuhio.
The county planning should have realized that the addition of a Ross store in the plaza would play havoc with our current traffic congestion and the problems that already existed before the store was opened. Why is it that the Foodland plaza has two entrances and two exits and the Safeway plaza, as close as I can tell, only has one entrance and one exit?
The county should have required the owner to upgrade the plaza to accommodate all of the extra congestion causing these problems. This is another prime example of what better traffic management can do for the flow of traffic.
Steve Martin, Kapaa
People made the travels on Kauai wonderful
Comment regarding the article by Dawn Fraser Kawahara regarding “Too far to travel.”
My wife and I were privileged to visit Kauai three or four times. It was visually beautiful, but most of the special beauty came from the residents of Kauai. Our first visit was at the time that Kauai was introducing recycling.
Recycling is common place here on the Mainland, but was new to many of the islanders. We went into a grocery store in Wailua and purchased a six-pack of POG (wish we could get POG over here). When it came time to take the empties back to the store (over here the store that sells the product recycles the empties) we met a young employee to ask where we turn the cans in. She was about 17-years-old. Her response was that it was her understanding that emptied cans needed to be taken to some recycling center that had been set up “over on the other side of Lihue.” I asked for a more precise location for where to go, but her reply was, “I don’t know because I have never been on that side of Lihue before.”
Her words were sincere, but I wonder if she was putting me on. Was the other side of Lihue too far to go?
Just before we departed from the island at the end of another of our visits, loving friends put together a dinner party to send us off. One of their guests asked how we moved about the island during our stay. My response was that I use a rental car; in fact, when I return it, the odometer will indicate that the car is 1,800 miles more used than it was five weeks ago when I picked it up.
His response in amazement was, “My God, where did you go on this tiny island? I don’t put 900 miles a year on my car, and you did two years worth in five weeks. ”
Yes, I have to admit, we were two of those “invaders” who helped to clog the roads of Kauai, but doing so, we met soooo many wonderful, helpful, educating, story telling, exciting, sharing, loving Kauaiians on our journey.
We thank each and every one of them for their graciousness. We were truly blessed to have been with you.
John Cutter, Somers, Connecticut
