Posted on: Monday, November 8, 2004

Students win plea for city stoplight

By Eloise Aguiar
Advertiser Windward O'ahu Writer

KANE'OHE — Three years after students pleaded for a traffic control light at King Intermediate School, the city is moving to install signals there.

The project had pitted neighborhood board against neighborhood board as commuters voiced concern that a light would slow rush-hour traffic through an area that is already congested with pedestrians, automobiles and buses converging on the campus along with traffic that must pass through the community on its way to work.

As many as 50 students at a time pour off school buses in the morning on Kamehameha Highway in front of the school. Dozens more are dropped off by parents. School officials said near misses have many worried that a serious accident is waiting to happen.

School principal Cynthia Chun said traffic needs to slow in the area. On Oct. 29 more than 100 students, teachers, police and AIG Hawai'i employees held signs outside the campus to urge drivers to be alert, and two people were cited for speeding 15 mph over the limit, Chun said.

"I cannot imagine that there would be anyone that would think we don't need a light," she said. "Maybe the kind of light and what exactly the light does might be up for discussion. But just for a matter of safety, it is important."

City spokeswoman Carol Costa said Councilwoman Barbara Marshall had requested money for the light.

The project will include the traffic light, handicapped ramps and a crosswalk, Costa said. The bids should go out at the end of the month, with the project, estimated at $250,000, beginning in February or March. The contractor will have 90 days to complete the job, she said.

Katie Norris, an eighth-grader, said the traffic lights are needed because students don't wait until the way is clear.

"When there's a break in the cars sometimes kids run across and they don't really pay attention and they don't see the car coming from the opposite side," she said, adding that cars have had to slam on their brakes.

Chun, students and the Kane'ohe Neighborhood Board lobbied for the lights in 2001 but the Kahalu'u Neighborhood Board objected, said Roy Yanagihara, Kane'ohe board chairman.

At first the city said the lights were not warranted, but Danny Smith, former city representative to the board, brought city managing director Ben Lee to the school and Lee said it was needed, Yanagihara said.

Yanagihara said the board wanted pedestrian activated lights that would operate only when the school was in session.

The Kahalu'u Neighborhood Board did not want a full-fledged light either, said Daniel Bender, Kahalu'u board vice chairman. A push-button activated light would be acceptable, Bender said.

But he added: "The simplest solution is to have the bus drive onto the school property and pick up the kids inside the school."

Instead, he said, "we're spending six figures to put a light there that could in fact delay people from He'eia all the way back to Kahuku," Bender said.

Reach Eloise Aguiar at eaguiar@honoluluadvertiser.com or 234-5266.