By David Shapiro

On a recent trip to Las Vegas, it was a revelation to be able to roll my wheelchair out of the hotel onto Fremont Street and find all kinds of trouble right at my doorstep.

I came home determined to end my housebound ways and discover similar opportunities for adventure on O'ahu.

I'm not sure if city streets are ready for me.

My key to getting out of the house in a wheelchair is to remove the car from the equation as much as possible. The more times I have to maneuver my 200-pound wheelchair in and out of the car to get my business done, the less likely I'll leave home.

Since my house is far from any real action, I can't leave the car in the garage and travel entirely by wheelchair. The next best option is to get a lot done with only one stop of the car.

I started at the malls. I could park once and shop, browse book stores, dine and see a movie — all in air-conditioned comfort. Most malls have a post office, supermarket, drugstore and video rentals within easy wheelchair distance.

I soon craved fresh air, though, so I tried a Waikiki escape with my grandson Corwin. We visited the zoo and Kapi'olani Park, explored Kalakaua and Kuhio avenues, played in the fountains at Kuhio Beach and shared a banana split. It was almost as easy as Fremont Street.

The difficulty started when I tried to travel real neighborhoods.

Instead of driving to the Kailua Post Office as I usually do, I left the car home and rode my wheelchair to the Enchanted Lake substation a mile away.

Big mistake. Street corners had no ramps, and driveways were too steep to get me up and down from the sidewalks. So I had to travel much of the way on the street, exposed to traffic. A relaxing outing quickly became a tense game of chicken.

A venture to Kaka'ako brought similar frustration, with inaccessible buildings, shabby or nonexistent sidewalks and no ramps at crosswalks.

If you want to know what life in a wheelchair can be like, try crossing Ward Avenue at Auahi Street in traffic.

The corners lack ramps. To get to the crosswalk, I had to backtrack down Auahi to a poorly graded gas-station driveway, then maneuver to the corner through the street's busy right-turn lane. I had to wait in heavy traffic for the light to change, only to see the red stop signal flash before I was halfway across the street.

I've never demanded much accommodation. In fact, I enjoy the challenge of overcoming obstacles and showing up where wheelchairs seldom go. Still, I would like to be able to cross the street safely like everybody else.

It's enough to make a fellow curse Jeremy Harris and Ben Lee for dragging their okoles on implementing the city's 1997 federal consent decree promising to build 7,600 new sidewalk ramps by 2005 to comply with the Americans with Disabilities Act. They made little progress by last year and had to get an extension to 2007.

I realize it's not an easy job and I can be patient — as long as there's a reasonable effort to make the fixes within the promised time.

But the complicated engineering cited by Lee and his estimated cost of $1,400 per ramp seem questionable in many cases. I'd hate to think this is one of those city projects that are over-designed and overpriced to leave contractors with a big cushion to fill political campaign funds.

David Shapiro can be reached by e-mail at dave@volcanicash.net.