Island Voices
Traffic must be considered in planning

By Peter S. Webb
O'ahu resident

As our state and city governments continue to eye development in Kaka'ako and elsewhere, one wonders if they have given any consideration to traffic and usability.

Traffic on Ala Moana and Nimitz Highway is very heavy all day long, and bumper to bumper during morning and evening rush hours. Why, then, would we build major tourist attractions, or major educational and business parks, makai of Ala Moana/Nimitz, where they would simply add to the already horrible traffic?

Why would we move the Zoo to Barbers Point, forcing most of the island's population and all tourists into a 30-minute ride in an already badly congested traffic corridor? What possible rationale is being used here?

If we're trying to promote tourism, reduce traffic and make Waikiki more appealing, let's consider a few possibilities:

• Combine the Waikiki Aquarium, a lovely but undersized facility, with the Natatorium, a historic but unusable facility. Use the pool area of the Natatorium as a gigantic fish tank, with a Plexiglas tunnel for observation of the larger reef and inshore fish that such a tank could accommodate. Expand the aquarium toward the Natatorium.

Cost: a fraction of that for the governor's "world class" facility. Advantages: within easy walking or trolley distance of Waikiki. No traffic, tour buses or rush-hour madness. A beautiful setting and a little bit of history as well.

• Moving the Zoo to Barber's Point would cost tens of millions of dollars and would probably lower attendance (who's going to fight the horrible traffic by the H1-H2 interchange?). The current site for the Zoo is small but quite workable if we concentrate on a few world-class exhibits rather than a Noah's Ark attempt to have two of everything.

What the zoo needs is not a new location, but more money — money that the City Council has refused to provide for many, many years. Spend half of the money that relocation would cost on upgrading the current Zoo, and we'll have a superb facility, within walking distance of Waikiki, again reducing tourist traffic and travel time.

• Rethink (as our new UH president would appear to be doing) the idea of locating a medical school by the ocean in Kaka'ako. Serious medical researchers and top-notch students are not going to be attracted by seaside classrooms. What these people will come for is a facility that is close to major medical and biotech resources.