Posted on: Thursday, August 15, 2002

EDITORIAL
Well-placed traffic lights prevent fatalities

For two years, students at Kapolei High and Kapolei Elementary have been risking their lives navigating busy intersections to get to and from school.

And naturally, their teachers and parents have been begging for more crosswalks and traffic lights around the campuses.

So why is it taking so long to install life-saving road safety features at the two Kapolei schools?

Even more alarming is the situation in 'Ewa, where a 16-year-old girl was killed last month while crossing Fort Weaver Road.

For years residents have sought improvements at the crosswalk where the girl was struck. The community has asked for a pedestrian overpass, but state transportation officials rejected the plan in favor of new and brighter signs.

That crosswalk, at the Child and Family Service Center, is at the top of a hill, making it especially hard for motorists to see. The speed limit is 45 mph — understandable, considering the high volume of traffic that must use this major artery. A pedestrian-activated traffic light is clearly needed at that crossing — and soon.

Back at Kapolei, the Housing and Community Development Corp. of Hawai'i has been working on the matter for a couple of years, but the board has yet to decide whether signal lights are needed at the busy intersections near Kapolei Elementary.

As for the $1 million project to install signal lights on Kama'aha Avenue and Kama'aha Loop, the board has yet to approve a design proposal.

And even if the board approves the whole enchilada at its Aug. 22 meeting, it could take as long as a year to install all the safety features.

It never ceases to baffle us that the design of something as simple as a crosswalk with traffic lights would delay the installation of traffic safety features for several months. It's not as if they're reinventing the wheel.

But if optimal permanent measures must take so long, then interim measures must be taken to make these crossing points more pedestrian- friendly. Why, for example, can't temporary traffic lights be hung from a wire?

In a couple of weeks, tens of thousands of children will return to school after their summer vacation, and some will undoubtedly dart across busy intersections, eager to reunite with their classmates. There has to be something to stop the traffic.

Let's not wait until another child is killed.