The intersection at South King and Keeaumoku streets is a busy one, fraught with the danger of potential collisions.
There are pedestrians, motorists and bicyclists, with those on foot waiting for a signal to cross all four sides as drivers are at the same time trying to make left turns — all while city buses are pulling over to pick up passengers at a stop.
It has been identified as a top “high-injury intersection” in the City and County of Honolulu’s Oahu Vision Zero Action Plan.
The final 101-page plan, published in August, outlines the key problems, including a lengthy list of the isle’s most dangerous corridors and intersections based on six years of crash data, along with proposed design improvements and their estimated costs.
Vision Zero, according to the city, is a “multi-faceted strategy to eliminate all fatalities and severe injuries on our roadways while increasing safe, healthy, and equitable transportation choices for all.”
“The goal was zero fatalities,” said Germaine Salim-Hagihara, a planner with the city’s Complete Streets program, an interdepartmental group that played a prominent role in development of the plan. “Part of the reason it’s so comprehensive is because we recognize the multipronged approach to try to address all the different variables that result in traffic crash fatalities.”
The plan outlines 17 goals and 80 actions including short-, mid- and long-term solutions, with an estimated cost of about $44 million to $48 million a year to get to zero traffic deaths and serious injuries on Oahu’s streets by 2040.
It is needed because on average, one person dies in a traffic crash on Oahu every week.
Oahu’s streets are among some of the deadliest in the nation for pedestrians, who account for more than a third of all people killed in crashes, with kupuna being the most vulnerable.
Vision Zero examined state data from the years 2015 through 2020, which include details from police reports to help pinpoint the island’s highest-injury intersections and corridors. During that time, a total of 1,697 fatal and serious injury crashes were recorded.
Deadly streets
The highest concentration of crashes is in urban Honolulu. In fact, 90 percent of high-injury corridors are in the “primary urban center” development plan area that stretches from Kahala to Pearl City.
In Waikiki, the Ala Wai Boulevard corridor between Kapahulu and Kalakaua avenues is a top spot, having logged 67 crashes, including 11 that were fatal or serious.
The corridor is considered a “Tier 1” location, meaning it’s a very high-injury area that experiences six or more crashes per year per mile, or two or more fatal injury crashes.
Then there’s King Street, which has numerous Tier 1 corridors and intersections.
The section of South King Street between Alapai and Punahou streets logged 92 crashes, with 10 being fatal or serious, while the stretch between Punahou and University Avenue logged 56 crashes.
High-injury intersections are identified at South King and Ward Avenue, and Piikoi, Keeaumoku and McCully streets.
South King and Piikoi topped the list for number of crashes with 23, but none that were fatal or serious, while the intersection at Keeaumoku had 18 crashes and four that were fatal or resulted in serious injuries.
On the Leeward side, high-injury corridors are at Farrington Highway in Waianae, California Avenue in Wahiawa and Leoku Street in Waipahu.
One corridor in particular has become infamous with the death of Sara Yara, a McKinley High School student fatally struck by a hit-and-run driver last year while in a marked crosswalk on her way to school.
Kapiolani Boulevard, between Kamakee and McCully streets, is considered a high-injury corridor, which from 2015 to 2020 fielded 63 crashes, with 11 crashes involving serious injuries or fatalities.
Yara, 16, was hit at Kapiolani and Kamakee, which was also listed as a high-injury intersection in the city’s Oahu Pedestrian Plan, published in July 2022.
All of that data was gathered before that tragic incident, and a red-light safety camera had already been slated for installation at the intersection as part of a state pilot project.
Since the incident, two speed humps have also been installed on Kapiolani — one on the east side and one on the west side of Kamakee.
The Vision Zero report highlights this tragedy and that the driver who hit Yara reportedly had over 200 traffic-related citations and violations, and notes that stricter penalties may deter future mayhem.
The state Legislature this year passed Sara’s Law to increase penalties for habitual driving without a license.
Speed is a factor
According to Vision Zero, high-injury corridors such as Ala Wai and King share common characteristics.
They are generally main streets with three or more lanes, with average daily traffic volumes above 20,000 vehicles and speed limits over 30 mph. Oftentimes, they have unsignalized intersections or lack other traffic controls.
Streets with a higher lane count generally have a higher risk of severe crashes, the report said.
The Ala Wai corridor is a high-injury corridor due to several factors: high pedestrian traffic among visitors and residents alike, plus a high volume of mixed traffic that includes cars, bikes, trolleys and buses.
South King Street, meanwhile, traverses a densely packed area with numerous intersections and many commercial businesses with entrances and exits alongside a two-way bike lane and parked cars.
While impaired and inattentive driving are common factors in crashes, speeding is also prevalent in many of the Tier 1 corridors.
Speed is a determining factor in the severity of injury when a crash does occur, according to the report, and was a contributing factor in 32 percent of fatal crashes.
The plan notes that “safe speeds are crucial to achieve Vision Zero” and a host of actions are necessary, ranging from physical street improvements to enforcement and legislation.
What can be done
Based on community outreach, the Vision Zero team found the top five safety tools the public supports are more sidewalks, pedestrian refuge islands, protected left turns, rectangular rapid-flashing beacons at crosswalks, and 20 mph school and neighborhood zones.
Speed humps, which are sometimes controversial, are also requested by some communities tired of speeding in their neighborhoods.
The state Department of Transportation continues to roll out raised crosswalks in school zones, along with speed humps in areas where speeding is prevalent.
DOT Director Ed Sniffen said in a previous interview he supported the rollout of speed humps due to their effectiveness in slowing drivers down, regardless of enforcement.
“When we put in these speed humps, physics starts controlling how fast you can go through the area,” he said, “and it works every time.”
Daniel Alexander, a Honolulu DTS planner, said a study has shown the effectiveness of speed humps in slowing drivers down.
In a study of 10 various speed humps, the percentage of drivers going 10 mph or more over the speed limits was reduced from 27 percent to about 10 percent across all locations, he said, which is a major improvement.
Additionally, the percentage of drivers stopping for pedestrians increased from about 66 percent to 89 percent.
“Speed is such an incredible factor when someone gets hit and what the consequences are,” he said.
The Honolulu City Council in August proposed a bill to reduce the speed limit in school zones from 25 to 20 mph. Vision Zero supports this, saying survivability among victims is better at speeds of 20 mph or less.
Street design
Most crashes resulting in injury on Oahu occur at intersections, according to the report, which impact pedestrians and bicyclists more than vehicles.
The risk of fatal crashes increases at unsignalized intersections and those without all-way stop signs or other traffic controls.
Another contributing factor to many serious or fatal crashes is the lack of infrastructure for bicyclists and pedestrians on Oahu. The plan reports that 80 percent of fatal and serious-injury crashes involving bicyclists occurred on streets without dedicated bikeway infrastructure.
Nearly one-fifth of fatal and serious-injury pedestrian crashes occurred on roads without sidewalks or other walking facilities.
With crosswalks, it’s a different story. The most frequent fatal and serious-injury scenarios actually involved pedestrians crossing in a crosswalk as a vehicle was proceeding straight ahead or making a left turn.
The Vision Zero team supports changes in enforcement to reduce dangerous driving behaviors, as well as laws and policies for safer speeds along with ongoing education campaigns.
But it also supports safer road designs and installation of safety features such as a network of sidewalks and bike lanes, speed humps and flashing beacon crosswalks, using the data to prioritize high-injury areas.
Safety should be integrated into capital and repaving projects, whether it be new crosswalks or lane reconfigurations.
Complete Streets projects are already planned for high-injury areas, including Ala Wai Boulevard, with pedestrian crossing beacons and a protected bike lane. Dedicated turn lanes are proposed for Keeaumoku Street.
A pedestrian crossing beacon is also slated for the crosswalk at North School and Ahonui streets in Kalihi.
The Vision Zero plan is the culmination of years-long efforts after Honolulu City Council in 2018 adopted a resolution urging the DOT to adopt a Vision Zero policy, which it did in 2019.
The study is intended to complement a host of other studies before it, which include the Oahu Bike Plan of 2019, the Oahu Pedestrian Plan of 2022 and the state’s Hawaii Vulnerable Road User Safety Assessment in 2023.
The plan was funded, in part, through grants from the Federal Highway Administration. With its completion, the city is eligible for new federal grants that aim to make streets safer for all.
