December 30, 2014
Traffic woes in Lanikai soar during holiday
With the area beaches already causing daily jams, residents want some better solutions
When Janny Gibson's young son fell and broke his arm in their yard the Sunday before Christmas, she didn't call an ambulance.
Instead, the family jumped in their car and drove in the sluggish, tourist-laden traffic through their Lanikai neighborhood, served by a one-lane loop in and out.
"My poor son is crying and we're trying to get him to the hospital," she recalled. "Luckily, it was a day where there wasn't so much traffic."
It took only 45 minutes to get from their house to Kalapawai Market, 1.2 miles away, compared with the 90 minutes on Christmas Day, she said.
The Gibsons live next to Lanikai Beach, which consistently ranks high in national ratings, taking TripAdvisor's top spot in March among U.S. beaches and No. 5 in the world by National Geographic in its "The 10 Best of Everything" book.
Christmas week seemed to hit Lanikai especially hard. On Christmas Day, hundreds of people at one point were stuck in a bumper-to-bumper snarl.
"It was a perfect storm of everybody off, good weather, and the roadway wasn't able to handle the amount of volume," said Kailua police Sgt. Brandon Yamamoto.
But some residents blame police officers for backing up traffic at the intersection of Kailua Road and Kalaheo Avenue near Kalapawai Market. They say police favor pedestrians crossing with kids and rental kayaks.
Special-duty officers hired by Alexander & Baldwin, owner of the strip mall where a kayak rental company and retailer Island Snow are located, were assigned to the spot on Christmas, but regular-duty police officers took over after they left, Yamamoto said.
"It's so congested, it's hard to alleviate everything in one smooth transition," Yamamoto said. "The best we can do, outside City Council action, is to control that one intersection to get people in and out."
He added: "The primary purpose of that was to make sure everybody gets through safely. The way the pedestrian law is written, all vehicles are mandated to stop for the pedestrian."
He said police can try to accommodate traffic better by waiting until a group of pedestrians has assembled, "rather than letting them cross one by one."
Ambulances have a particularly difficult time negotiating the Lanikai logjam.
"We didn't want to call an ambulance because we've seen what happens," Gibson said about the time their son broke his arm.
"We need help," she added. "This is horrible. We can't get out!"
Several problems plague the small Windward neighborhood.
Some residents can't get out because beachgoers park in their driveway.
An officer issuing citations Monday said most are for failure to park 4 feet from a driveway or 10 feet from a fire hydrant, or for parking at the end of a cul-de-sac.
He said calling a tow truck isn't a perfect solution because it requires temporarily blocking the roadway, adding to the morass.
A lack of public restrooms, showers or trash cans in private beach accesses add to residents' woes.
"They use my hose, ask to use my restroom," Gibson said. "We saw so many people using the bathroom in the bushes — and not just No. 1."
Debbie Pearce, 46, said: "It makes it hard to go about our daily activities. … Our biggest gripe is people not recognizing there is a bike lane" and parking in it. "You don't realize it until you're riding your bike and you have to go into the roadway."
Pearce added: "I've thought about it. I really don't see a solution that'll work. We can't stop people from coming into Lanikai. It's my favorite beach. I'm sure it's other people's, too. I don't think we have any more of a right to dictate what happens in Lanikai.
"By the same token, it is our front yard people are driving through," she said.
The city Department of Transportation Services director has met with concerned residents numerous times, but was unavailable for comment Monday.
At the request of Lanikai residents, the department has raised the fine for parking in bike lanes to $200 from $35, and painting "no parking" warnings in the bike path. The department also is getting "No Parking Here to Corner" signs installed on side streets.
