A plan to move a bus stop and shelter on Fort Weaver Road from the makai side to the mauka side of Kolowaka Drive has residents of Ewa by Gentry hopping mad at state transportation officials.

Scott Ishikawa, state transportation spokesman, said traffic engineers believe pedestrian safety will be improved by the move. The engineers cite national studies that show having a bus stop on the "far side" of an intersection typically is safer than putting it on the "near" side of approaching traffic.

But Ewa by Gentry residents say general standards don't apply to the traffic patterns for motorists who traverse Fort Weaver Road, known for its lengthy peak-hour traffic. The move would make traffic worse and cause a greater danger for pedestrians, according to Greg Burgess, an area resident.

The bus stop move is part of the ongoing Fort Weaver Road widening project that will turn the main artery through 'Ewa from a four-lane to a six-lane street. Ishikawa said transportation officials hope to have the bus stop moved around the end of the year when the widening work reaches the Kolowaka intersection. The widening project began in 2004. The final phase began last October and is expected to run through late 2009.

Ewa by Gentry residents and officials said they were informed about the change at a February community briefing on the widening project, and that their protests have fallen on deaf ears.

Suzanne Alawa, general manager of the Ewa by Gentry Community Association, said state engineers can't use a cookie-cutter approach when examining intersections that each have unique circumstances.

"They don't live here, they don't ride TheBus, and the people here by the hundreds don't want to do this," Alawa said.

Ishikawa said engineers hope to reduce the chance of accidents by moving the stop to the mauka side. "Having a bus stop on the far side allows for better visibility (by motorists of pedestrians) in the area," he said. "We're trying to avoid conflicts between the drivers and the pedestrians."

Ishikawa said oftentimes, vehicles seeking to turn right at an intersection will cut in front of a bus stopped before the intersection, thus increasing the chance they could come into contact with pedestrians who have been obstructed from view by the bus itself.

He noted that the Kolowaka intersection is the only one along Fort Weaver where a bus stop and shelter are on the near side. Ishikawa said he did not know if any studies had been done analyzing traffic counts at the intersection to justify the change.

Burgess, a retired military engineer, said the state engineers' reasoning goes out the window because few cars going north on Fort Weaver turn right onto Kolowaka. Most seeking to go into Ewa by Gentry's eastern subdivisions will have already turned off at Geiger Road or Keaunui Drive to avoid the longer stoplights on Fort Weaver.

"It's like water; they go through the path of least resistance," Burgess said.

The change creates new problems, Burgess said. Because there is no crosswalk on the mauka side of Fort Weaver at the intersection, bus riders coming from the western Ewa by Gentry subdivisions will need to walk across three intersections in order to get to the new bus stop. Many may instead choose to jaywalk.

Ishikawa said that in response to resident concerns, a fence will be installed along the median on the mauka side in order to discourage jaywalking across Fort Weaver. Additional lights will accompany the bus shelter, he said.

Burgess said another problem is that Kolowaka and Keaunui back up in the morning. Deleting an existing acceleration lane for vehicles turning onto Fort Weaver will only worsen the morning backup fighting to get onto Fort Weaver, he said.