Public access to Kee Beach, Haena State Beach, Kalalau hiking trail and other beautiful natural attractions on Kauai’s North Shore has been intensely discussed and debated for more than the last several years.
The crux of the matter, which most Kauai residents are well aware of, is tremendous growth of visitors to Kauai and especially to these North Shore scenic attractions. This has caused a great diminishing of enjoyment and use of what used to be a very enjoyable experience for residents and visitors alike.
This issue has temporarily ceased to exist due to the destruction of parts of the only access highway by the April 15 storm. Currently the only people able to enjoy these scenic attractions are residents who live beyond the highway control point at Waikoko. Only residents with the government issued vehicle placard are allowed beyond the control point.
An approach, which has the potential to limit the number of non-residents while allowing residents and visitors alike to enjoy the scenic delights as they used to be enjoyed, involves two simple concepts.
The first concept is continuation of a placard control approach for Wainiha/Haena residents.
he residents with placards would have unlimited access to the area for perhaps 12 hours or more per day. The second simple concept is that all other people could access the area only by bus.
Shuttle bus access to this area has failed in the past because anyone could still use their cars to access the area and the vast majority of people choose to use their cars.
However, a local resident placard access control system would force everyone else to use the bus. This would include Kauai residents who are not residents of the Wainiha/Haeana area.
Unlike most bus transportation on Kauai, this bus route would easily be financially self-sustaining. The bus fare for non-Kauai resident riders could be made quite high, say $10 to $20 per person for a round-trip with discounts for students, keiki, and kapuna.
Kauai residents could be charged a fare of $1 to $2 a round-trip.
The combination of steep fare and number of buses could be designed to limit the number of people accessing the areas to say no more than 900 people a day, a number that is in county planning.
The revenue from this bus route should be able to pay for the bus route, pay for the gatekeeper, and perhaps even help support other bus routes.
There are plenty of details to be worked out. Examples include where to locate bus stops with available automobile parking, human gatekeeper vs. coded card key operated gate, how to handle access for vacation renters in the area (e.g. rental property owners provide them with placards stamped with access dates) and access for workers/trades people and many other details.
Now is a great time to start planning to implement this approach since the highway will be closed for several more months.
Also, with Kauai elections fast approaching, it would be great to see council and mayoral candidates espouse implementing such an approach.
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Peter Nilsen is a resident of Princeville.
Mr. Nilson has a very valid point. Mandatory bus service for non-residents would be a very good solution to the overcrowding at the end of the road. Bus parking could be in the area of the Princeville airport. My opinion, though, is that the bus service should be financially attractable. Something like $5-$7 seems more reasonable for both the County and the visitors. Visitors are already paying with the TAT. Give them some benefit of their TAT payment with an affordable bus service to the end of the road.
Why would only Wainiha and Haena residents get placards to drive on the north shore? We all pay taxes here just like they do, will they catch the bus to travel outside of Hanalei so their vehicles don’t clutter up east, south , and west shores?
Are the rest of the island citizens second to those living out north? We all want our part of the island to be isolated and restrictive, but understand that is not feasible.
One issue not addressed with Mr Nilsen’s proposal is how to handle short term renters who have leased homes in Haena for one or several weeks. Without use of a car I imagine few would want to rent those homes. And of course the same prob would affect out of state owners who might want to use their homes on the north shore.
The reason the shuttle never worked and will never work is simple. there is no parking area in Hanalei or anywhere else on the north shore. Stop with the nonsense of the shuttle until you can find a place to park 3 hundred cars in Hanalei every day this idea is a waist of time and money
We do need a shuttle system for the north shore for locals and tourists but it should be free. We could implement a $25 Kauai entrance fee to all people visiting the island as a tourist. With the number of tourists coming to Kauai, this would bring in about 25 million a year which could be used to fund the free electric powered shuttles. The north shore could be marketed as a carless resort. Electric shuttles would take them and any locals to Hanalei and the Wainiha Haena regions. Unless you are a local Kauai resident with a sticker, visitors should not be allowed driving access to Hanalei and beyond. Free bikes could be available to get around the town and Hanalei could be more of a walking zone with only local Kauai residents having a sticker to drive down into the valley. I think that visitors who stay in the Princeville Hanalei area should be picked up at the airport by shuttles and if they want to visit the south shore or Poipu, they could pick up a rental car at the Princeville airport or take another shuttle to the other side. We just do not have room for all of the cars and even before the flood this was an issue. Local surfers could even use the electric shuttle bus system and surfboard lockers could be set up at the bay. Waikiki has a locker system like this for local surfers. We are a small island and we should start to limit the number of cars on the island and develop more shuttles and walking paths.