Posted on: Tuesday, July 20, 2004

DRIVE TIME
Bikers revved up to Ride to Work

By Mike Leidemann
Advertiser Transportation Writer

Tomorrow is the international day to ride your motorcycle to work.

In Hawai'i, records show just more than 25,000 registered motorcycles across the state. But like the rest of the world, most of them are used for recreation and occasional riding, rather than commuting. Nationally, only about 3 percent of the motorcycles are used for commuting.

The annual Ride to Work Day is an attempt to show the positive value of motorcycles as transportation, according to Ride to Work, the group that sponsors the event.

For more information, check out the group's Web site: www.ridetowork.org.

Safety standards

More than 90 percent of Americans want the federal government to set stronger safety standards for automobiles on the road, according to a recent Lou Harris poll.

Those surveyed also said they'd be willing to pay between $200 and $300 more per car for the safety improvements.

The survey was taken shortly after officials announced that highway fatalities in 2003 hit a 13-year high (more than 43,000 people) and that rollover crashes were on the rise.

Eighty-four percent of poll respondents, including eight out of 10 SUV owners, want the government to require steps that make SUVs less likely to roll over, even if that increases the cost of the vehicles.

New bus pullouts

City officials want to build seven new bus pullouts on Dillingham Boulevard between Pu'uhale Road and North King Street at a cost of $4.3 million.

City officials presented the plan last week to O'ahu Metropolitan Planning Organization's technical advisory committee, which recommended moving ahead with the project.

The pullouts would be used to allow buses to load and unload passengers without blocking traffic lanes.

Maui buckles up

Maui County has the best rate of seat-belt use in Hawai'i.

A survey of drivers across the state in early June found that Maui County drivers and front-seat passengers were buckled in 97.3 percent of the time.

That was up from 89.5 percent observed earlier in the year. And it was way up from the 26 percent of Maui drivers who used their seat belts back in 1985, the year before the state's mandatory seat-belt law took effect.

This year's seat-belt use was lowest, 93.2 percent, on Kaua'i, but officials still say that's well above the national average.

Health of townies

Living in town can make you healthy. Living in the suburbs can put you at risk.

A new national study finds that people who live in compact urban areas are more likely to be healthy than those who live in sprawling bedroom communities and spend relatively more time driving to work.

The study found that residents of large, dense cities such as New York and San Francisco tend to be thinner and at lower risk of high blood pressure than suburban dwellers who climb into their cars for everyday errands.

Reach Mike Leidemann at mleidemann@honoluluadvertiser.com or 525-5460.