Protest planned over roundabout
By Will Hoover
Advertiser Staff Writer
Armed with a Neighborhood Board resolution and a petition signed by more than 500 residents, Foster Village resident Janice Pechauer expects to lead a group of protesters to the intersection of Haloa Drive and Ala'oli Street this morning.
Her mission: to stand in the way — literally — of the construction of a traffic roundabout at Foster Village's busiest intersection. Work is scheduled to begin today.
"The main objection is that it's not necessary and it's dangerous," said Pechauer, who said she has spearheaded the drive to stop the roundabout. "The residents don't want it."
But Foster Village resident John Drake does wants it. He has supported efforts to get the city to put in some kind of "traffic calming" device at the busy intersection, and claims the community is split on the issue.
"The bottom line is we have a speeding problem and we have a traffic problem," Drake said.
He and other residents approached the city about the problems seven years ago. City engineers advised putting in the roundabout, a landscaped circle that forces drivers to slowly snake around — rather than speed through — an intersection.
"That was 1998," said Drake, who added that the neighborhood was duly notified about progress on the idea.
"And here we are seven years later and all of sudden these people are coming out of the woodwork and deciding they don't want it," he said.
Pechauer said the Aliamanu-Salt Lake-Foster Village Neighborhood Board last week passed a resolution asking the city to instead install stop signs, making the intersection a three-way stop. She said Mayor Mufi Hannemann indicated that he'd take the board's decision into consideration.
She said Hannemann also knew about her petition bearing the signatures of 505 residents opposing the roundabout. So she said she and others were startled yesterday when they saw workers making preparations to install the roundabout today.
Drake says stop signs might help the speeding problem, but will add to the neighborhood's traffic congestion.
City spokesman Bill Brennan said, "The community expressed some concern about speeding in that neighborhood, and so we've planned to do this roundabout. And, at the last minute there seems to be this surge of opposition."
After considering all positions, Brennan said, the city decided to begin work on the roundabout today as scheduled.
Reach Will Hoover at whoover@honoluluadvertiser.com or 525-8038.
