Cover Story

Master work

The City and County of Honolulu is preparing to unveil a new master plan for bicycling.

by Ragnar Carlson | Sep 2, 2009

Cover

On the first page of the first draft of the new Oahu Bike Plan, scheduled to be finalized sometime next month, the authors crank the vision thing about as far as such a thing can be cranked. “It is time,” they intone, “to promote the practice of Kamehameha I’s Law of the Splintered Paddle –the right of all people to be safe on our roadways.”

Elsewhere in the introduction, there is mention of Honolulu’s “great potential” as a bicycling haven. Many similar, seemingly grandiose phrases abound.

It’s hard to reconcile that kind of language with what appears to many observers to be the current state of bicycling in Honolulu. Cyclists and non-riders alike frequently complain–many of them to this newspaper–about unsafe roads, clueless drivers and other menaces. Anecdotally, too, it’s easy to see that bicycling ranks somewhere behind “hitching a ride” and “in my canoe” as a mode of transportation in Honolulu.

It turns out appearances can be deceiving, for bicycling and bicycling master plans alike. Honolulu, while not on par with European biking meccas or college towns on the mainland, is an active bicycling community by U.S. standards, with a bike-to-work rate three times the national average and a healthy dose of cycling-friendly city programs. And as the City prepares to integrate public comments and formally release the plan in October, many cycling advocates are supportive of what they say appears to be a positive–and pragmatic–step toward a more bicycle-friendly island.

A pragmatic plan

Honolulu is not Amsterdam. It’s not Davis, Calif., the most bike-positive community in the United States, where more than 14 percent of commuters ride their bikes. Oahu has followed the same transportation trends as most U.S. cities since the early 20th Century–a tiny bit of bicycling, a little bit of mass transit and a massive helping of personal automobiles. That balance, or imbalance, creates a challenge for transportation planners looking to improve bicycling convenience and safety.

Chief among the major elements of the Oahu Bike Plan are its emphases of connectivity and feasibility. Those goals stem in large part from lessons learned after the release of the 1999 master plan, the most recent major document devoted to bicycling issues. That plan, widely admired for its ambition and vision of a cycling mecca, bogged down when it came time to fund its ambitious projects. A centerpiece was an unbroken, dedicated cycling path winding from Kahala to ‘Aiea, one that never got off the drawing board.

“The 1999 plan I think is a very good plan,” said City Director of Transportation Wayne Yoshioka, whose department was responsible for the creation of the new draft. “And if all of that could be built at once, that’s fine. But typically plans don’t get built that way.” When Bicycling Coordinator Chris Sayers and the department’s outside consulting team began focusing in earnest on the new plan in early 2008, deteriorating economic conditions made it even clearer that funding would become an issue.

“So, we wanted an emphasis on having a pragmatic plan,” Yoshioka says.

This time around, planners avoided high-cost dream projects like circle-island bike paths and focused on what could be done to improve connectivity, planning jargon for making sure bikeways align to form clear routes usable for getting from point a to point b.

“We had to make sure we don’t have pockets of great cycling facilities unconnected to one another,” said Sayers.

Bicycles for miles

The City’s new vision calls for nearly 600 miles of new bikeways, a dramatic expansion on the 117 miles that currently exist. The proposal is most dramatic for the ‘Ewa plain, with bicycling lanes as well as storage facilities deeply integrated with the forthcoming rail transit network.

The prominence of ‘Ewa-side communities in the new plan is a prime example of how the planners sought to ensure feasibility. Sayers and Yoshioka say that one of their main strategies was to piggyback new bikeways onto already-funded projects, thus dramatically reducing costs. For the proposed new rail stations in Central and West Oahu, that means building bike storage facilities and bike paths into the blueprints. Yoshioka also says developers in the area, including the Department of Hawaiian Homelands with its Kapolei Two project, are already beginning to build bikeways into new developments from the ground up.

Other new cycling routes may be funded at least in part through a new national planning initiative known as “Complete Streets.”

“The idea.” Yoshioka said, “Is that all new construction and reconstruction is supposed to take all modes [of transportation] into account.” While federal funding through Complete Streets has not yet fully materialized, Yoshioka says he’s hopeful. “Complete Streets is a goal,” he said. “It’s logical to follow that up. I think the success is going to be that the [federal and state Complete Streets statutes don’t] say ‘we’re going to retrofit the world.’ But when the opportunities present themselves, we’re going to integrate all modes of transportation, and bicycling included.” The piggybacking strategy is already in effect elsewhere on the island, including in the nearly completed resurfacing of Keolu Drive in Kailua/Enchanted Lake.

“They were already putting down new pavement. You’re going to have to put down new lane markers anyway,” said Yoshioka. “We wanted to use it as an opportunity.”

By simply putting paint down in a different place, the City was able to create a new bike path, at zero added expense.

“We changed the road from four lanes to two,” said Sayers. The change allowed the City to connect almost all of winding Keolu Drive with an undivided bike lane. “Our traffic engineering division evaluated the plan to make sure it wouldn’t negatively impact traffic. We’ve still got some issues around the shopping center there, but soon virtually all of that road will be connected.”

Most of the bike routes in the master plan involve new lanes, not the paths many cyclists crave, an outcome born of necessity, planners say.

“In a built-out city like this one, you’d like to have separate paths, but it’s just very difficult and very expensive to accomplish that,” said Yoshioka.

While some in the cycling community have expressed frustration with the lack of paths, the Transportation department is confident that the incremental approach will lead to greater success sooner.

For now, the plan is to augment the hundreds of miles of new bike paths with an increased emphasis on public awareness and education programs designed to improve both ridership and safety. There are a number of physical infrastructure projects–clearer route markings, safety-enhancing “bike boxes” to facilitate turns at major intersections– in the plan, but Sayers and Yoshioka point to evidence nationally that the best way to increase bicycling safety is to increase bicycle ridership.

“It’s based in reality. We’d like to be Amsterdam overnight,” said Sayers, “but it’s not going to happen. It’s going to be more of a snowball effect, where more and more people become aware of biking. Somebody sees somebody they know bicycling and thinks ‘I’m gonna give it a try.’ And pretty soon it becomes more accepted.”

The draft version of the Oahu Bike Plan is available at [oahubikeplan.org].

While the official public comment period has closed, Honolulu Bicycling Coordinator Chris Sayers says he welcomes questions, and comments about bicycling in Honolulu. He can be reached at [email: csayers].

Spokes-people

Other voices on the Oahu Bike Plan, and on bicycling in Honolulu.

Charles Djou

Honolulu City Council member

Djou recently introduced a bill calling for a “three-foot rule” when autos pass bicycles on the road.

“The three-foot rule has been adopted and implemented in numerous other places. My bill is modeled after a Colorado law. The current law states that a motor vehicle driver must pass a bicyclist “safely,” which basically means “successfully.” In other words, as long as you don’t hit the guy, you passed safely. We want to make it easier to enforce biking safety.

I do hear from constituents about bicycling issues. I think there are a lot of people who want to ride but aren’t sure how to start. I think the new plan is great. There are a lot of good things in it, but the City is broke. While it’s a good plan, realistically I don’t see much of it getting implemented because of budget problems. My rule accomplishes a lot of the same goals without enormous taxpayer expenditures.

I hope [the plan will be implemented in part]. There are good things in there that are not new expenditures, but anything to do with new construction–realistically it’ll be a least a few years. But every little bit helps when it comes to improving the quality of our bicycling options.”

Mitchell Nakagawa

Executive Director, Hawaii Bicycling League

Looking at this plan compared to 1999, I think it’s a very good plan. It looks at bicycling more holistically, in the sense that we’re looking at not only structural and engineering issues, but the education, the enforcement, the role of advocates. Multiple things stand out in the new draft: one is the acknowledgement that we have a very fragmented bicycling network now. Placing an emphasis on connectivity existing bike routes, and integrating them with rail–that’s good.

For many of us, connectivity is the greatest source of frustration. Looking at commuting: we don’t have an east or windward to downtown route. Look at signage: the routes exists, but they aren’t always intuitive.

A general comment about the draft plan: in addition to working on the implementation and ensuring funding for all of these projects, we need to have some way to reach out to the broader community who [is] unaware. Something akin to a citizens guide. I think the city does a good job while the plan is being drafted, but I think there needs to be more ongoing communication about cycling.

[The new plan] is an improvement for two main reasons. One, it encompasses the entire island. Two, it includes all the other influences, like education, outreach, employer support.

I think the plan is very ambitious. They identified lanes, paths routes to be built. That in itself is a very bold step. The key here is to make sure the funding is there at the time of implementation, and that’s going to take immense public and political will.

Is it currently safe to bicycle around here? I think that there are options for all types of bicyclists. Still, urban Honolulu is not bicycle friendly in the sense that is defined nationally.

As soon as people begin seeing more bicyclists on the streets, similar to themselves, their uncles and aunties, it becomes a different equation. The single greatest barrier is either a lack of awareness or the perception that bicycling isn’t safe.

Overall, I think the community is ready for improved conditions and the decades of work by advocates are about to come to fruition.

Frank Smith

Owner of Island Triathalon and Bike

I have spent time looking at bike plans…my own opinion is that they’re kind of waste of time. I’ve seen them since 1978, I think this is the fourth one, and pretty much nothing happens. The real revolution in cycling will come when people learn to cope with the streets the way they are rather than waiting for some magical construction project we’re never going to see.

I vehemently object to people who say it’s unsafe to bicycle here. I don’t think it is. I think if you acquire the appropriate skills that it’s reasonably safe. I’m exhibit A.

You have to be totally aware of your environment. It’s not the time to zone out with your sound system. You have to be on full alert. You need to be visible, typically in the daytime wearing brighter colors, lights at night. Where you position yourself in the traffic is a huge help. People think it’s safer to be far away from cars, they hug the curb or ride on the sidewalk. Sidewalks are terribly dangerous. I’d like to see an educational and an enforcement program for the sidewalks.

There’s plenty of drivers that violate our right to share the road. I attribute my success to being able to anticipate every stupid thing that a car can do, so that you’re prepared for it. I teach this class called Traffic Kills 101. Really, the answer is to teach the bikers how to cope.

Oahu is very accommodating, with the exception of the streets being bumpy. I really point my finger at the State. Kamehameha Highway, on the Windward side and the North Shore. It’s like the Incredible Shrinking shoulder, where you have sand build up, then vegetation, then the shoulder disappears.

I think bike lanes are passe. I don’t think they help at all. They become a debris magnet, It makes cyclists and motorists behave contrary to the regular rules of the road. If you’re making a right turn, and there’s no bike lane, they merge safely. With the bike lane they don’t know what to do, so they accelerate or cut you off.

The biggest issue is that we just don’t have a lot of room. We just can’t carve paths out like they can on the mainland.

Everybody has to follow the same rules. It’s a dance. It’s not a war. We’re not fighting each other. Aside from a very small number of sociopathic people, you know, there’s jerks out there, but the vast majority of motorists are accommodating.

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This week

2013 Summer Books

On a breezy May evening, in the courtyard of the state library, local publishers, writers and book designers gathered to celebrate the 2013 Ka Palapala Pookela Awards, sponsored by the Hawaii Book Publishers Association. The place was packed, and I was struck by such a healthy showing for an industry whose demise has been predicted since before the advent of Amazon.

Unlikely Pairings

I was intrigued recently to channel surf upon a deft interview of Susanna Moore on PBS Hawaii. Moore is the nationally acclaimed author of nine books, perhaps best known for her luminous My Old Sweetheart and other Hawaii novels, as well as the rough-sex 2004 noir In the Cut.

A Long Lost Era

Kabuki Boy, a novel, reads almost like an autobiography filled with vivid details that transport us to 19th-century Japan during the “Tokugawa Era.” Fast-paced and humorous, it aptly dramatizes an ancient dramatic art. The hierarchy between the social classes of samurai, geisha, peasants and monks comes alive from the page, seen through the eyes of Myo, a young boy aspiring to become a kabuki actor.

Panek Point

Calling this big fat novel Hawaii was bound to raise eyebrows. Hey, come run to the schoolyard to watch Mark Panek throw down!

Inward Journey

Beautifully designed, with outstanding photography of India and Tibet by Linda Connor, the newest edition of Manoa is especially ambitious in its choice of subject/theme. It attempts to present diverse interpretations of the meanings and implications of the term “freedom,” doing so in the forms of fiction, essays, poetry, memoir and drama.

Gardens

This new book of poetry is easy to read, yet I had all kinds of strange dreams after reading it. The poems are short but poignant–a lot of thought and crafting went into every well-placed word.

Brotherly Tears

When the young narrator, Landon DeSilva, of Tyler Miranda’s novel Ewa Which Way, watches an episode of “Leave It To Beaver,” he sees a family whose idea of discipline is a father and son discussion without “head cracks” or “cuss words.” In the episode, Eddie Haskell and Wally Cleaver talk about the Beaver’s highjinks, and Landon’s friend says, “just like your brudda . .

Community

In a poetry class I teach at Windward Community College, a student recently did a presentation on coming-out poems and presented her own. One of her peers asked a thoughtful question: “If you are a gay, are you automatically part of the gay community?” It’s a question I’ve had about being Asian American–and a poet.

Cruelty

In Wing Tek Lum’s poem “The Red Circle,” a sergeant teaches his soldiers how to use a bayonet during Japan’s infamous occupation of Nanjing, China in 1937: “With a nub of red chalk / our sergeant marks off / a crude circle in the center / of the chest.” The men are instructed to stab everywhere, except the heart. A quick death would be too kind–too merciful.

Wit

“We are selves in a world because we have words,” writes the late poet Tony Quagliano in the preface of his book, Language Matters. In this masterful collection, every line absorbs the reader into the writer’s world, revealing his intimate thoughts on politics, writing, Hawaii and life.

The Romance of Sunset

A sort of team anthology, Sunset Inn: Tales from the North Shore is a collection of fiction, poetry and a play published by the Aloha Romance Writers, who admittedly chose–over margaritas and Mexican food–the conceit of a colonial-style seaside inn, described in Patrice Wilson’s poem “This Haven” as “white as salt” and “bleached coral in the sea,” as a central setting for their book. Like the landscape and the building, the collection holds stories of love found, lost and always remembered, some of which are based in Hawaii history and some from a contemporary eye, but all adhering to the familiar elements of the romance genre and the romantic.

Love Lore

In Huna Magic: The Hawaiian Odyssey, Dawn Star puts on a modern spin on Hawaiian mythology and folklore. Set in ancient Hawaii, the book starts off with the classic forbidden love story between a young woman, Kuulei ke Anuenue and a handsome man, Kai, who happens to be the chiefess’s love slave.

Reassembling

The reader weary of cutesy novels with multiple story lines that are obviously going to be inextricably tied together, somehow, might not want to venture too far into Darien Gee’s The Avalon Ladies Scrapbooking Society. But if it’s comfort food for the brain you’re after, you’d be missing out.

Green Noir

Set in Hawaii, Saving Paradise, Mike Bond’s sixth detective novel, tells a passable if unevenly written story featuring one Pono Hawkins, a Special Forces vet (Afghanistan), celebrated international surfer and correspondent for ocean magazines. He also insinuates himself into the woes of others, in this case a beautiful young thing whose lifeless body bumps into Hawkins as he goes surfing at dawn.

Decolonizing Our Future

Confucius said, “If your plan is for one year, plant rice; if your plan is for 10 years, plant trees; if your plan is for 100 years, educate children.” The philosopher’s sagacious message seems to align with the alternative approach to education seen in Hawaii’s charter school system. Noelani Goodyear-Kaopua’s The Seeds We Planted is an ethnography articulating the establishment, growth, and success of Halau Ku Mana, one of the few Hawaiian culture-based charter schools in Honolulu.

Navigating Selves

Leilani Holmes’s richly chronicled journey toward a reconnection with her Kanaka Maoli culture opens with the epigraph: “For those who came before us. In hopes that we act on behalf of your bones.” Ancestry of Experience is a thoroughly researched and deeply genealogical journey.

Think Pink

There’s something foreboding about the cover of Pink Globalization. It’s a dark, monochromatic picture of an enormous grey Hello Kitty gazing ominously into the night in front of a corporate-looking building. The picture is certainly intriguing and symbolic–Hello Kitty is taking over the world.

Hardships, Loneliness, Triumphs

A deeply researched and careful weaving of previously unheard voices can be found in Mai Lepera, adding another layer about leprosy patients exiled to settlements at Makanalua peninsula in the 19th century. Keri A.

Transcending Prejudice

If resiliency spoke of a group of people, the Japanese population of the then-Territory of Hawaii during World War II claims the description. With one specific attack on December 7, 1941, an island-wide prejudice against all immigrant Japanese was born, painting a picture of angry nationals who plotted Hawaii’s demise.

Mano

An ambitious, immensely rewarding product of nearly five decades’ research and teaching (beginning when the author was l3 years old), Patrick Vinton Kirch’s A Shark Going Inland is my Chief bids fair to be a definitive, almost exhaustive look at “the island civilization of ancient Hawaii.” Divided into three major parts, Shark starts with Cook’s arrival when Hawaii was four major kingdoms in the midst of creating stratified societies.Kirch deals with religion, evolving social structures and belief systems to make ancient Hawaii come alive. Especially noteworthy are beautiful descriptions of the making of canoes, particularly the vaka moana, capable of transporting families.

Charts for the Band

Music stores abound with compilations of “50 Favorite Songs” for everything from jazz to the Beatles to Bach. Now it’s time for the mid-20th century music of Hawaii.

Racism of Record

Compiled by Christopher LaVoie, Annexation! presents the imperialist agendas of the U.S.

Charting Our Ancestral Past

Hawaiki Rising by Sam Low tells the epic saga of voyaging on the Hokulea, which, as every Island schoolchild should know, is a traditionally constructed Hawaiian sailing vessel that is steered by observing natural elements, without instruments or maps. Low, a part-Hawaiian anthropologist who participated in three voyages, follows the Hokulea through conception, construction, and navigation.

From the Outside

The feeling of being an outsider in one’s beloved homeland is the theme underpinning Pamela Frierson’s fluid and honest nature writing. In her books, The Last Atoll: Exploring Hawaii’s Endangered Ecosystems and The Burning Island: Myth and History in Volcano Country, Hawaii, Frierson explores Hawaii’s unique ecosystems, while also searching for personal relevance where she grew up very aware of being merely a “second-generation colonist.” The shadows of a world unknown drive the writer, teacher and homesteader to attach to the landscape, pursuing a deeper understanding of Hawaii’s natural order, and, through those experiences, a sense of belonging.

Bearded beauties

Donald Hodel’s Loulu: The Hawaiian Palm is winner of this year’s Ka Palapala Award for Excellence in Natural Science. Loulu the Hawaiian Palm Donald R.

Missed Connections

Charlotte A. Tomaino, neuropsychologist and former nun, started with the intriguing concept of explaining how grace and spirituality can “awaken” the brain to a fuller potential through expanded consciousness.

The Naked Truth

Sharon Hicks’ How Do You Grab a Naked Lady recounts the relationship between Hicks, her mentally ill mother and idealist father. We meet Hicks at age 16 as she witnesses her mother parading around a mall in the buff, yelling and cursing–one of many manic episodes we’ll see during the book.

Last Train to Ho’opili?

One paradox of TheLast Train to Zona Verde, Paul Theroux’s 46th book and his latest about Africa, is that it’s also one of the best meditations on Hawaii you’ll ever read. But first, why Africa?

Every Reader for Himself

Confirming rumors, Barnes & Noble’s (B&N) Kahala Mall bookstore will close when its lease expires in January 2014. There are no current reports concerning B&N’s Ala Moana location, but it’s probably a matter of when, not if, management installs a T-shirt store.

Island Girl

Last weekend, Susanna Moore was in town to read from her new novel, The Life of Objects. A striking beauty–high cheekbones, fine features, long white hair with an inky streak that matches her brilliant black eyes–she wore a sleeveless blouse, full cotton skirt and rubber slippers.

A Traveling Light

We were out at Tongg’s surf break when the world’s best-traveled writer paddled past in a kayak. I said, “Paul Theroux?” Mindy nodded.

CIVIX

KAKAAKO MEETINGS The HCDA will host a series of meetings to discuss the Kakaako redevelopment plan and how rail will fit in with those plans. The meetings are open to the public.

Make Our Day

On May 13, Common Cause Hawaii assembled a panel, titled “The Good, the Bad and the Ugly,” to deconstruct lessons from the recently ended 2013 Legislative Session. Commentators included Rep.

Homeless Plan

Mayor Caldwell is winding down his public town-hall meetings campaign. The meetings are designed to update the public on the progress of the Mayor’s major first-year initiatives: repaving the roads, getting TheBus routes restored, making the city’s parks beautiful, fixing Honolulu’s sewer infrastructure, building rail better and, most recently, solving homelessness.

Pacific Pivot

During a 2011 speech to the Australian Parliament, President Obama declared: “The United States will play a larger and long term role in shaping [the Pacific] region and its future.” On May 10, the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) Pacific Forum hosted a panel discussion that sought to determine what a U.S. “pivot” toward the region would look like and what the reaction to increased U.S.

The homeless experience

I picked up your May 15 issue with great anticipation because on the cover was a photo of a person experiencing homelessness who I have had numerous interactions with (“Derelict Downtown,” May 15). He is someone I have always found to be articulate and friendly–an ideal person to talk to if one wishes to learn about experiencing homelessness.

Hawaiian rights

The puppetmasters controlling the creation of the Hawaiian Nation have manipulated Hawaiians who have signed up for any Hawaiian registry to become captive members of Kanaiolowalu, the Native Hawaiian Roll Commission. Those bills were heard this session and were passed by the Senate in the Tourism and Hawaiian Affairs Committee chaired by Brickwood Galuteria and the Judiciary and Labor Committe chaired by Clayton Hee, although the forced enrollment is unconstitutional.

Money over land

The Land Use Commission, the Honolulu Planning Commission, the Zoning Variance Commissions and all the other BS commissions are hijacked by big business (“Hoopili Miss,” May 15). Judge Rhonda Nishimura’s head is buried in the sand if she doesn’t recognize the votes were bought.