City's decision narrows focus of road cameras

By Mike Leidemann
Advertiser Transportation Writer

The city's decision to pull out of the state's photo enforcement program for speeders means the new cameras won't be operating on the vast majority of O'ahu roads in residential and commercial neighborhoods, where residents often complain most loudly about unsafe drivers, officials said yesterday.

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Instead, Honolulu officials plan to continue an aggressive program of alternative traffic-calming measures, such as roundabouts, signs, speed bumps, and increased police patrols, said city spokeswoman Carol Costa.

"These are things that give people a say-so in how to solve the problems in their own community," Costa said "We think this is a better road to go down than the use of cameras."

Gov. Ben Cayetano, however, criticized Mayor Jeremy Harris' decision to ban the cameras on city streets, while the state Department of Transportation said the pullout will have little impact on the three-year trial program.

"That's politics. That's basically what it is," Cayetano said. "Basically it's a good program, and I find it interesting that people should be supporting people who violate the speed limit."

Cayetano also criticized state lawmakers who suggest the program be repealed.

"They voted to pass the law; we are carrying it out," Cayetano said. "I know it's become very, very political but when people say that it's violating due process, this thing has been upheld in courts throughout the Mainland. So the question is do we want to deal with speeding or not?"

Transportation Department spokeswoman Marilyn Kali said the three-year pilot program will proceed as planned on O'ahu and Neighbor Island state highways, which include the H-1, H-2 and H-3 Freeways and most major roadways linking different communities.

"We've still got plenty of state roads where the speeds are higher, but now we won't have the opportunity to know whether it would have been effective or not in smaller areas," Kali said.

Others around City Hall generally supported Harris' decision.

"We've heard loud and clear from the public that this is bad idea," said Honolulu Council Chairman Jon Yoshimura. "There's probably a place for photo enforcement in Hawai'i, but this program has all kinds of problems. Where do you want to begin?"

Councilman Duke Bainum, a candidate for the mayoral spot being vacated by Harris later this year, agreed that the camera program is flawed, but said the city should have brought its concerns before the council before taking action.

"It's a pilot project, but now we'll never know whether it would have worked here," he said. "It's a little ironic that so many people complain about traffic and speeding, but now when they do something about it, all you hear is a bunch of complaints from other folks."

Lt. Gov. Mazie Hirono, another candidate for mayor, said talk of scrapping the program after only three weeks is premature.

"Considering how many people are complaining, I don't blame the city, but maybe we should all pause and take a deep breath and decide where to go from here," she said.

Even former Mayor Frank Fasi, a longtime Harris foe, found himself in agreement with him on this issue.

"It should be a city and police responsibility to take care of speeders," Fasi said. "Why would we want to replace them with a robocop?"

Across the state, there appeared to be disagreement between police and county leaders whether vans would be welcome on the Neighbor Islands. The cameras are expected to expand to state highways on Neighbor Islands later this year, but it's unclear if they'll also be used on county roads.

"Tons of people have been begging the County Council and the police department for more speed enforcement," said Lt. Charles Hirata, head of the Maui Police Department's Traffic Section. "Here's the perfect solution: It's violator-funded, and the technology is solid. It's a very accurate system."

But Maui County Mayor James "Kimo" Apana said he doesn't think the camera vans are needed on Maui.

"It might work in a situation where you have large freeways and enforcement is more difficult, but we don't need it here," Apana said.

He said local police can handle speeding enforcement in a more "personable" way, without the camera vans that are incurring the wrath of motorists on O'ahu.

Hirata's counterpart at the Hawai'i County Police Department also sees the need for more effective enforcement of speed limits. "Speed is one of the leading factors in the fatal crashes that we have. We support any program that will reduce crashes resulting from speeding," said Sgt. Randy Apele.

There are no plans to bring the vans to the Big Island roads, said Hawai'i County Managing Director Dixie Kaetsu said. The issue is not a priority there, and Kaetsu said she's not so sure county officials would want to step into the same controversy that has greeted the program on O'ahu.

Kaua'i County officials are watching the traffic camera issue on O'ahu with interest, but have not considered employing similar techniques, said Wallace Rezentes Sr., administrative assistant to Mayor Maryanne Kusaka.

"If we see something that's working well elsewhere, we might adopt it. But on this, we'll wait for the results. We've never discussed it," he said.

Advertiser staff writers Christie Wilson, Jan TenBruggencate and Lynda Arakawa contributed to this report.