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The Honolulu Advertiser
Posted on: Tuesday, May 13, 2003

DRIVE TIME
Narrower lanes could make commuting safer, quicker

By Mike Leidemann
Advertiser Transportation Writer

Bigger isn't always better, at least when it comes to Hawai'i roads.

In fact, shrinking the size of our highways and streets — or at least the width of a normal traffic lane — might just be the key to making our drive time safer and quicker, too. Here's how:

One of the problems with traffic safety in Hawai'i is the size of our traffic lanes, says University of Hawai'i engineering professor Panos Prevedouros.

Commuting

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In most of the world, including Europe and Japan, the standard traffic lane is 10 feet wide. It seems to work fine for them. It would work fine for us, too, even those who drive an SUV.

Yet in Hawai'i and almost everywhere else in America, the road lanes are 12 feet wide. It's pretty much the same whether you're talking about big wide highways like H-1 Freeway, arterial roads like Pali Highway or neighborhood streets.

We speed because we can. In most cases, a 12-foot traffic lane is big enough to allow drivers to travel comfortably and safely at speeds as high as 75 mph, when weather conditions permit, Prevedouros said.

If we removed all the speed limit signs on Pali Highway and similar roads, the average safe speed would likely be around 50 mph. "In fact, when we did a survey in April 2000 on the Pali Highway between Laimi Street and Jack Lane, many motorists suggested that their preferred speed limit would be 45 mph," he said. The legal speed limit is 35 mph in that area.

If we went all over the island narrowing our traffic lanes to 10 feet, most drivers would slow down automatically — without the need for traffic cameras, police speed traps or those ubiquitous traffic-calming devices like rumble strips.

They'd do it because it would be in their own self-interest. Making the roads smaller would make drivers feel a little more uncomfortable. They'd slow down not because of a speed limit but because they'd feel a little uncomfortably close to the next car — even though 10 feet is plenty of room to maneuver most cars through Honolulu traffic.

Now, here comes the interesting part. Even though people would be driving slower, the changes might improve some commuting times.

First off, there would be fewer accidents. That means there would be fewer delays. Traffic would move slower but with fewer interruptions. There would be no big backlogs. That means you could get from here to there in a predictable amount of time — something drivers say they want even more than a double-decked Nimitz Highway.

In some instances, narrower might end up being wider. On some streets and highways it might be possible to have four 9-foot lanes instead of three 12-foot ones. (You have to borrow a few feet from the shoulder to make the math work). That means there would be more room for more cars all heading in the same direction. Congestion would decline and so would commuting times.

Of course, once commuting times declined, more people would probably buy more cars, ultimately filling the new found void. But that's another story.

Mike Leidemann's Drive Time column runs Tuesdays. Reach him at 525-5460 or mleidemann@honoluluadvertiser.com.