StarAdvertiser-article

February 9, 2015

Leave it to city department to justify new traffic signs

By June Watanabe

Question: Some neighbors and I would like to petition for a four-way stop at Kainalu Drive and Mookua Street in Kailua. It is the only through street from Kalaheo Avenue to Maluniu Street, therefore is very busy. People sometimes drive right through and there are many accidents. Kainalu Drive itself is notorious for speeding, and a four-way stop would slow people down. Currently, there is no other mandatory stop between the stoplight at the Kailua Fire Station and Kaha Street near Kainalu Elementary. Can you please advise how/who to petition for a four-way stop? Does the city keep data on accidents that we could access for that specific area?

Answer: There's no need for a petition.

Instead, a simple request to the city Department of Transportation Services would prompt an investigation into whether a four-way stop is justified or warranted based on the Manual on Uniform Traffic Control Devices via an engineering study, said DTS Director Michael Formby.

Among the criteria considered:

» A traffic signal is going to be installed, and a multiway stop would be an interium measure.

» Five or more crashes have occurred at the intersection in a 12-month period "that are susceptible to correction by stop signs."

» Vehicular volume from the "major" street averages 300 vehicles per hour for any eight-hour period, and the combined vehicular, pedestrian and bike volume entering from the "minor" street averages 200 for the same eight-hour period.

"DTS does not maintain location-specific accident or crash data," Formby said. Instead, DTS retrieves the data on a case-by-case basis for warrant studies.

DTS has not received any request to study the Kainalu-Mookua intersection, which is between Kainalu Elementary and Kailua Intermediate schools.

However, it did study complaints it received about speeding in the vicinity of the schools and is working on a project to "calm speeds" by alerting drivers to how fast they are going with signs, Formby said.

DTS plans to install two sets of "driver feedback" signs, one posted near each of the two schools, he said.

Contacting DTS

To request four-way stops or other traffic-related measures, Formby said, the community can go through their neighborhood boards or City Council members.

However, you told us you were not able to get any response after contacting your neighborhood board and Council member.

A third option is to write to DTS directly.

Send your request to Traffic Engineering, Department of Transportation Services, 650 S. King St., 2nd Floor, Honolulu, HI 96813.

Question: I received a corrected Form 1099-G from the state Unemployment Division. The first form stated $0.00 state income tax was withheld from unemployment benefits. The corrected form provided the tax amount withheld. How much did this error cost taxpayers for the second mailing? Hopefully it was sent to a select few and not everyone who received unemployment benefits.

Answer: About 15,000 amended notices, out of the nearly 40,000 original Form 1099s sent to claimants who opted for the state withholding deduction, were mailed, said William Kunstman, spokesman for the state Department of Labor and Industrial Relations.

The cost of the second mailing:$7,318.56 for postage; $455, envelopes; and $421, computer run/printing and staff labor.

The money came out of federal funds in the operating budget, Kunstman said.

How did the error occur?

For the tax year 2014, the Unemployment Insurance Division implemented a new cost-savings measure of outsourcing the 1099G process as an alternative to using state resources, Kunstman said.

However, an error occurred when the "1099G IRS report file" was sent to the contractor for printing with only federal withholding information instead of both state and federal withholding amounts, he said.

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