Salt Lake to get DVD on roundabout use
By James Gonser
Advertiser Urban Honolulu Writer
The city has created an educational DVD and will send it to thousands of residents to teach them how to use a traffic roundabout being built in their Salt Lake neighborhood. But at a cost of $20,000, some say it is just wasting more money on a project residents didn't want in the first place.
It's the first time the city has turned to such high-tech measures to get its message across directly to residents, but officials say it's worth the money.
"The DVD is a way of ensuring information gets into people's hands," said Cheryl Soon, city director of transportation services. "There have been a lot of questions in that neighborhood about how to use a roundabout and understand it. It is an important message and we think it is a wise investment."
But a tax watchdog group called it a "waste of money" that will end up in the trash with the other junk mail.
The roundabout is being installed at the intersection of Ala Napunani and Likini streets in Salt Lake to slow traffic and increase pedestrian safety in a busy area. Opponents say there are easier and cheaper ways to slow traffic.
A roundabout demonstration project, which cost about $60,000, was placed at the intersection a year ago. The permanent roundabout will cost about $635,000.
The Aliamanu/Salt Lake/Foster Village Neighborhood Board voted against making the project permanent and a group of residents picketed the site, but the city moved forward with it after a door-to-door survey conducted by Rep. Glenn Wakai, D-31st (Salt Lake, Tripler), showed that nearly 60 percent of households surveyed supported the roundabout.
The neighborhood board then asked if the city could take steps to educate residents about how to safely use a roundabout.
Typically, the city hires a consultant to give a public presentation or a city official attends a board meeting to convey information, but that reaches only a few people, according to Lennard Pepper, vice chairman of the neighborhood board.
The DVD will be mailed to 8,200 area residents, and if they have a DVD player they can watch it or — if not — simply read the printed information included in the mailing, Pepper said.
"In general it is very difficult to inform people about anything," Pepper said. "You may have had informational meetings or gone to the board or sent out fliers and people will still say, 'Nobody ever told me about that.' "
On occasion the city will rent a large venue such as the convention center or buy television ads. But Soon said the DVD is an "attention getter" that is user friendly and stays in the home where several family members can watch it and refer back to it as needed.
"We were brainstorming and somebody had gotten a computer disk in the mail and we said, 'What if we tried to do that?' " Soon said. "In the business of traffic safety, whenever we have the opportunity to bring people's attention to something, we try to do that. There has been a lot of tension on this and with the completion of the project, it is one of those opportunities to grab people's attention and go over the safety rules."
The DVD also got the attention of Lowell Kalapa, president of the nonprofit Tax Foundation of Hawai'i, a public watchdog organization. "It's a waste of money," Kalapa said. "The $20,000 could have done a lot of good."
Kalapa said the community wanted a traffic signal or stop signs to slow traffic, neither of which requires a DVD to learn to use them. The DVD will likely end up in the trash with other junk mail, he said.
The five-minute DVD is an animated program showing the intersection and how cars, people, trucks and bicycles can safely use the roundabout. Soon said the DVD and information booklet can be modified and used in other communities when a roundabout is about to open, which would bring down the per capita cost.
A roundabout directs traffic around a raised island in a counterclockwise direction. Drivers leave the circle by turning right onto the street they choose. Traffic slows but doesn't stop because no left turns are possible.
Despite opposition to the roundabout, many Salt Lake residents wanted traffic-calming along Ala Napunani near Moanalua High because students tend to cross the busy four-lane street there.
Soon said the new roundabout will be completed in June and the DVD will be mailed out about two weeks before that.
Soon said the DVD will also be available free at the Salt Lake Blockbuster store.
Reach James Gonser at jgonser@honoluluadvertiser.com or 535-2431.
