The League of American Bicyclists recently added 11 communities to its roster of Bicycle Friendly Communities, a list that now includes 84 towns and cities in 31 states.

Guess what? Honolulu's not among them, nor are any of the Islands' towns.

That fact won't surprise anyone who's made even one foray astride a bike into traffic, least of all the roughly 2,500 who make regular bike commutes on O'ahu. Charting a safe bike course from here to there on this island can be difficult, given the traffic hazards and the patchy web of lanes, paths and even roadbeds that are sufficiently wide to accommodate cars and two-wheeled transport.

This happens to be Bike to Work Week across the country, an appropriate time for city officials to be meeting in the community with people who want to make Honolulu a place where more residents actually could bike safely to work, or anywhere else.

Up for discussion at these workshops, which will resume in September, is the long-delayed update to the O'ahu bike plan that was prepared in 1999. Meanwhile, e-mailed comments will be taken and a revised draft of the plan should be ready a year from now, planners say.

That's an entire decade that Honolulu has allowed to slide by without giving proper attention to the gaps in its bike network. And it's approaching two years since the most recent set of charter amendments was passed, including one that won 77 percent of the vote, requiring the Honolulu Department of Transportation Services to make bikeways and pedestrian-friendly improvements a priority.

Work should have started long before now.

However, now that it has, the public needs to look at the maps that have been drawn up to show where bikeways exist and where more could be designated.

The route to town from West O'ahu is sketchy, especially around Pearl Harbor, and the maps show where links could be made. Undoubtedly, there are other flaws that could be corrected.

This should not be mission impossible. Other cities — Portland and Seattle, to name two — have overcome their lack of infrastructure for bike transit.

Roadway realignments and widening projects all should be done with an eye to the needs of bikers, too.

High gas prices afflict the whole nation and are driving the movement toward transit alternatives.

But in Hawai'i above all, with glorious weather year-round, it's a shame that it's so hard to make bike riding a real option. Now we have the opportunity to change that sad reality.