Traffic OK for some, bad for others
By Dayton Morinaga
Advertiser Staff Writer
The game plan for fans attending yesterday's football game between the University of Hawai'i and Fresno State was similar to most football strategies.
Eugene Tanner • The Honolulu Advertiser
Get ahead early and enjoy the rest of the game.
Fans cheered the winning touchdown catch of Hawai‘i’s Ashley Lelie with 13 seconds left in last night’s 38-34 Warrior upset of the 18th-ranked Fresno State Bulldogs. The Warriors scored 22 points in a fourth-quarter comeback to improve their record to 5-2.
With the game scheduled to start at 4:05 p.m. at Aloha Stadium, leaving work early to beat the Friday pau hana traffic was a key to avoiding late-arrival frustration.
"I left my house at 1 and got here in 15 minutes," said Charles Bell of Punchbowl. "That gave us almost three hours to tailgate."
The unusual Friday afternoon start accommodated a national television appearance on ESPN. It was originally scheduled for 6:05 p.m. Saturday.
Stadium parking lots were opened at 12:30 p.m., leaving fans ample time to arrive before kickoff.
"That was the best thing they could have done," said Bell, a Federal Express employee who took the entire day off. "The traffic normally starts around 3, so if you were smart, you got here before that."
Many fans shared a similar strategy. By 3 p.m., a majority of the parking stalls were filled, while traffic on the west-bound H-1 was crawling at a snail's pace. Around 3:45, all stadium parking lots were filled.
"We barely made it," said Leon Teo of Kaimuki. "We left about 2:30, and it took us about one hour to get here. The traffic was bad, but not as bad as I thought."
Others weren't as fortunate.
Greg and Deborah Chun found out the hard way. Despite leaving work "early" at 2:35 p.m. from the Federal Courthouse building in downtown Honolulu, Deborah spent more than 90 minutes in traffic — 35 minutes to go from downtown to the airport to pick up Greg, and then another hour to get from the airport to the stadium.
By the time they got to the stadium, all parking lot gates were closed, so they parked at Radford High School, resulting in an additional 15-minute walk. When they finally walked through the turnstiles, Fresno State was already ahead, 7-0.
"It's a little frustrating," Deborah said. "But it's one of those things that can't be helped. We kind of expected the traffic to be pretty bad anyway."
