Traffic-calming adds stress in Kailua

By Eloise Aguiar
Advertiser Windward O'ahu Writer

KAILUA — Median strips installed on Kailua streets to slow down drivers and beautify the roadways have given rise to a debate among residents on whether they cause more problems than they solve.

A youth navigates a scooter through a median strip on Keolu Drive. The city added stanchions to make it more visible. Jeff Widener • The Honolulu Advertiser

Cheryl Soon, city transportation director, said that negative reactions to the traffic-calming projects are normal, but that residents soon become strong supporters of the measures. The measures are proven safe and they work, she said.

"I can tell you that everywhere we put these in, people get used to them very quickly," Soon said. "Within three to six months, they'll be asking for more."

Three areas that have raised concerns are:

• Kaipi'i Street, where a traffic-calming project is under way. Residents predict that autos will hit a slanted median and bulbouts — those landscaped protrusions, shaped like light bulbs, that extend 4 to 5 feet into the parking lane of the road.
• Keolu Drive, where autos have struck the new medians, prompting the city to place orange stanchions on them so drivers can see them better. The medians were installed to help schoolchildren cross the five-lane road.
• Kailua Road, where new medians are part of a beautification project that has drawn criticism for not providing enough "stacking" room for left-turning drivers.

Manfred Pirscher, a Kaipi'i Street resident, called the traffic-calming measures for Kihapai and Kaipi'i streets hazardous. Others said they will negatively affect the value of their homes.

Some Kaipi'i Street area residents say a new median strip and a bulbout are creating a safety hazard for motorists. Jeff Widener • The Honolulu Advertiser

The planter doesn't run parallel to the road. It's at an angle to the street, and a bulbout is near the median creating a zigzag pattern in the road.

Soon said the planter creates a horizontal deflection that forces people to slow down to 25 miles per hour.

Drivers will still be able to head straight between the angled median, or chicane, and the bulbout, she said. The Kihapai project will have 13 bulbouts, four speed tables, a parallel median and one chicane.

Not everyone is unhappy with the additions. Some praise them for slowing traffic, providing safe walking conditions, improving the appearance of Kailua and ensuring safer crossing for pedestrians.

"I would agree to many more speed tables and bulb-shaped plantings if it meant my family, neighbors and pedestrians would be protected," said Dennis Barrett, a Kihapai resident.

Katherine Kelly, the vision team advocate of the Keolu project, recognizes that the Keolu medians in front of Enchanted Lake Elementary School and St. John Vianney School have a visibility problem. But school principal Michael Chu said the medians are working.

"It has really helped," said Chu, who finds that pedestrians benefit from the addition. "It has slowed traffic."

Soon said she is not sure why autos are running into the Keolu medians but the city will make them more visible by installing plants.

Meanwhile, Faith Evans, chairwoman of the Kailua Neighborhood Board, said she has received numerous complaints about the medians. On Kailua Road, traffic backs up when people turn left into the various businesses, she said.

"They did not plan very well and should have allowed for more stacking space," Evans said.

She expects that the projects will slow traffic, but after hearing these complaints she asked: "Are these safe?"

Reach Eloise Aguiar at eaguiar@honoluluadvertiser.com.