Fed up with traffic? This week you’ll have a chance to speak up on that issue. The state Department of Transportation is holding a public meeting on the “Long Range Land Transportation Plan for Kauai,” also know as the “Kauai
Fed up with traffic? This week you’ll have a chance to speak up on that issue.
The state Department of Transportation is holding a public meeting on the “Long Range Land Transportation Plan for Kauai,” also know as the “Kauai Federal-Aid Highways Plan.” The meeting will be held 5:30 to 7:30 p.m. Thursday at the War Memorial Convention Hall in Lihue.
In updating Kauai’s long range transportation plan, we have the opportunity to address the big questions:
1. How will we move around the island and within our towns in 2035 — that is, what is our vision for land transportation on Kauai in the future?
2. In an era of tight public budgets, what is the best way to accomplish our vision while protecting the environment, strengthening the economy, retaining our rural character, and using taxpayer monies responsibly — that is, what is our strategy?
Do we want to follow Honolulu’s approach and turn into a concrete jungle of roads, parking lots and traffic jams — where most residents are dependent on cars and have to structure their daily lives around traffic . . . where congestion continues to increase, despite the bypasses and wider highways built over the last 40 years — and where the cost of gas and owning a car continues to increase? Even if we want to keep building roads like Honolulu, can we? Their roads were built mainly during time of abundant federal monies. Today, the federal government faces a growing debt.
Insanity means doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results. Kauai clearly needs to do things differently if we want a future other than Honolulu.
Luckily, a thoughtful and forward-looking “Kauai Multimodal Land Transportation Plan” adopted by the County Council last year offers another vision. Instead of providing primarily for car traffic, the plan proposes making available more transportation choices for getting to work, to school, to senior centers, to shopping, to appointments, to visit friends, and to go to concerts, games and other events. The plan takes a “multimodal” approach; its goal is to make it as easy to walk, bike or take the bus as it is to drive a car.
Achieving the multimodal land transportation system will not be easy but it will bring many benefits to Kauai.
It will preserve our rural character, the foundation of our economy and lifestyle. Do you think visitors will admire our rural character if we have four-lane highways from Princeville to Koloa, especially if the roads continue to be congested? (Remember that 40 years of road building has not solved Honolulu’s traffic congestion. Besides, what will Poipu look like if it had to provide parking for twice as many cars?)
A multimodal system will help us reduce congestion even as we grow. Forty people in a bus takes up a lot less road space than 40 people in 40 cars!
It will reduce Kauai’s fossil fuel use and the amount of greenhouse gases generated on Kauai. Kauai will be doing its part to mitigage global warming and conserve energy.
It will make Kauai healthier. Buses, bikes and walking are called “active transportation” because they require more physical activity than cars. It will create green jobs, such as bus driving, and construction jobs to build multi-use paths, transit stops and sidewalks.
It will help families save money. A Kauai Bus commuter saves $30-$250 in gas money per month if he uses the bus four out of five workdays a week. If a family can get rid of one car because of bus use, it can save approximately $9,000 per year (gas, insurance, maintenance, car payments). Our multimodal plan will prepare us for the large numbers of seniors expected in 25 years who will need alternatives to driving.
The “Kauai Multimodal Land Transportation Plan,” unfortunately, applies only to county roads, the Kauai Bus and county policy regarding bike and pedestrian ways.
Unless the state Highways Long Range Plan, the subject of the Thursday meeting, aligns with the county’s Multimodal Land Transportation Plan, we will not achieve our goal of a multimodal land transportation system for Kauai.
While the state’s draft plan for its highways mentions the word, “multimodal,” the vision is not clear and neither is the strategy for transforming the state highway system into “complete streets” that are designed and built to serve all modes of land transportation: walking, biking, transit, cars and trucks.
If you are concerned about traffic and not just looking for quick fixes (there are few to none), come to the meeting Thursday to listen and give feedback about the state’s long-range plan for its highways on Kauai. The draft plan can be found at: http://www.hawaiilongrangeplan.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/03/Kauai_Cover.pdf
• JoAnn Yukimura has served as a Kauai Council member and mayor for a combined total of 24 years. As mayor, she started the Kauai Bus. She is presently chair of the Kauai County Council’s Committee on Housing and Transportation.
