Kailua residents seek slowdown of street's traffic
By Eloise Aguiar
Advertiser Windward O'ahu Writer
KAILUA — Ulupa Street in Kailua is narrow and short but the traffic on the one-block road between 6:30 and 8 a.m. resembles a business district, with plenty of delivery trucks, buses and automobiles — all going too fast.
"In a 15-minute or less period, we have between 35 to 40 vehicles going down this street," said Jim Robbins, who has lived there since 1972. "And a lot of them are really exceeding the speed limit."
Residents on the street are asking the city to reduce the speed limit on their road from 25 to 15 mph and post signs for motorists. They received unanimous support from the Kailua Neighborhood Board last month.
Speeding problems are not new to Kailua, where almost every month the neighborhood board is hearing complaints or listening to requests for some sort of traffic control, including speed bumps, traffic-calming devices and, in one case, road closure.
Ulupa runs perpendicular to Kainalu Drive and North Kalaheo Avenue. It's less than a quarter-mile long, no wider than 18 feet and has about 25 homes. Robbins said he believes most people use Ulupa to get to St. Anthony's School on Makawao, a one-way street.
Kathy Bryant-Hunter, Kai-lua board chairwoman, said residents are in agreement and have chosen this solution as a first alternative.
"I think part of it is people realize we don't have enough officers to constantly be patrolling the community and as a result they are looking for ways to slow cars down."
Bryant-Hunter said the community meets the basic requirement of having a narrow street with residents willing to at least try the lower speed limit proposal before considering more aggressive solutions such as speed bumps.
"The city should comply with the request and lower the speed limit," she said, adding that the board saw no reason to oppose it.
The city it looks at these types of requests on a case-by-case basis, but generally sticks to the traffic code, which establishes 25 mph in residential areas, said Cheryl Soon, city director of the Department of Transportation Services.
"This is known by most motorists and it has the added benefit of negating the need for signs which some people find ugly," Soon said.
Nevertheless Soon said she has sent the request to the Traffic Engineering Division for review.
Kailua isn't the first to seek lower speed limits. In February the City Council passed a bill to lower the speed limit on streets in Renton, Tenney and Varona villages in 'Ewa. The proposal was an amendment to a bill to lower speeds on all O'ahu cul-de-sacs to 15 mph, but that was scrapped.
Some of the signs have been installed, said Rodolfo Ramos, 'Ewa Village Community Association president. People are slowing down, but the problem still persists. When police are present, traffic is slower, he said. Once police are off to other duties, speeding picks up.
"Signs are not enough," he said. "You need someone to enforce (the law)."
Reach Eloise Aguiar at eaguiar@honoluluadvertiser.com or 234-5266.
