Bicycling advocates are applauding an ambitious new city bike plan that calls for 40 new miles of bike pathways by 2020, better connectivity of bike paths from urban Honolulu to bedroom communities on O'ahu and incorporating bikes into transit development.

A lack of money has hampered previous plans, and the city is already saying there's no funding immediately available to finance this one.

Still, advocates contend that though this plan is pricey, it has a better chance of becoming reality because of a number of converging factors, including volatile gas prices, the planned addition of rail transit and more emphasis on making sure capital improvements to streets include some consideration for bikers — whether through bike lanes or new signage.

"What we have seen is a broader acceptance from the community of sharing the road," said Mitchell Nakagawa, executive director of the Hawaii Bicycling League, which has about 1,000 members. "We have a lot more engineers and planners now who are asking, 'What should we do about biking?' "

The city is also more confident that its new bike plan, released recently in draft form, will be more of a to-do list and less of a wish list. Though the plan will require more than $57 million over the next two decades, city officials say it emphasizes practicality and projects that can improve bike safety and bike pathway connectivity without expensive infrastructure upgrades.

One example of that could be adding striping to roads that doesn't follow the strict requirements of bike lanes, but still alerts drivers that they're sharing the street with bikers.

"It may not be the Cadillac that we would like ... but we've really got to focus on the doable," said Wayne Yoshioka, city Department of Transportation Services director. "We're looking at some of the inexpensive things" that can improve bike safety.

Advocates say they'll take what they can get.

And they add that inexpensive improvements aren't necessarily a bad thing.

Justin Fanslau, of Hawaii Pedal Power, said simply making the right lane on streets a little wider to accommodate bikes would make a big difference. He added that's the kind of thinking he's seeing among city and state engineers. But he also said the island still has a long way to go to being bike-friendly.

"For 70 years, all over this country, we've been building communities to suit the automobile," he said. "I would say the biggest, saddest thing to me as a bicyclist is that you can't bike safely everywhere in a state that is sunny all day, almost every day."

EXPLORING FUNDING

There is no immediate new funding for projects in the plan, given the tight fiscal picture.

But officials are hopeful some of the work can be funded through roadway capital improvement work or will be put on a fast-track for money.

The bike plan updates a 1999 document, which Yoshioka said was "a great plan in terms of vision" but "lacked practicality."

The 1999 plan only looked at bike paths from Kahala to Pearl City, and recommended the installation of some 92 miles of new routes estimated to cost $77.5 million. The city did not have a complete accounting of how many of those routes were built, but officials said it was only a fraction given that spending on bikeway improvements has remained mostly steady at $1 million a year over the past several years.

Today, there are 66 miles of existing city-owned bikeways on O'ahu, and 53 more miles of bikeways on state highways or private property.

One of the major goals of the new plan is to add 181 miles of city bikeways by 2030. Within the next decade, the city hopes to have completed about 40 miles of that network. An additional 112 miles are planned in so-called "priority 3" projects, which are scheduled beyond 2030.

The projected cost of all the improvements is about $100 million, but not all of that will be city-funded.

Developers could be required to add bikeways, Yoshioka said, and some projects could be done in partnership with the state.

Some of the "priority 1" projects in the plan include adding bike paths at Central O'ahu Regional Park and Lanikuhana Avenue in Mililani.

Bike lanes are planned for thoroughfares in Kailua, 'Ewa and Downtown.

Bike paths generally take bikers away from traffic, while bike lanes are on the street.

Pattie Dunn, who started commuting to work at the University of Hawai'i-Manoa from Kahala every day by bike a year ago, said the new plan is worth getting excited about. "I know a lot of people are discouraged and look at this plan as, 'Well, here's another one that's probably not going to be carried through.' But I'm hopeful," Dunn said.

Part of that optimism comes from being involved in the community meetings — held over the course of a year — to put the plan together.

"A lot of people were involved in this and the city did ask for a lot of input," Dunn said.

Yoshioka said in the short term, more funding for the planned bikeway improvements probably won't be possible.

But he's hopeful that spending will increase in the future, especially as bikeway improvements are wrapped into street rehabilitation projects.

Yoshioka added that incorporating bikeway upgrades into other improvement projects is a dramatic shift — and one that makes more fiscal sense.

"The tremendous emphasis right now is the 'complete streets' movement," he said. State lawmakers, for example, recently passed a law requiring the Department of Transportation to keep bikers and pedestrians in mind when they make road improvements. The city also updated its charter in 2006 to include bikes as a priority in roadway planning.

"The way I look at it, it's an evolution in how we're planning," Yoshioka said.

Advocates agree, but they're also tempering their optimism about the plan, saying the city has a long history of overlooking bikers.

They say the major shortcoming of previous plans, including the 1999 plan and a 2006 state document, has been a lack of funding.

"Plans are exactly that — plans. Implementation is obviously where the rubber meets the road," said Fanslau, of Hawaii Pedal Power.

He added that government officials have made significant strides in incorporating bikes into their streets planning. He attributes that in part to more people getting on bikes to ride to work. When gas prices soared last summer, bike shops reported 25 percent increases in sales, and Fanslau said that many of those who turned to bikes for their commutes are sticking with them. The 2000 Census estimated about 1.2 percent of commuters in urban Honolulu and 0.9 percent of commuters islandwide traveled to work by bike. The national average is 0.4 percent.

Fanslau added that rail transit provides a perfect opportunity for integrating bikes into the transportation network.

MOVING FORWARD

The city has pledged that the rail project will be bike-friendly, and Fanslau said that's key to making the project work.

Hawai'i ranks behind about half of the country on bicycle-friendliness, according to the League of American Bicyclists.

In May, the nonprofit ranked Hawai'i 22nd out of the 50 states. That was a drop from the previous year, when Hawai'i ranked 14th.

Advocates weren't sure whether the drop was a signal that Hawai'i was getting worse, or that other states were improving faster.

But League spokeswoman Meghan Cahill said the new city plan is a key step forward for O'ahu.

"That's a stepping stone," she said, adding, "22 out of 50, it's not the worst ... but there's definitely room for improvement."

The ranking took the state's infrastructure for bikes into consideration, along with biking laws, education and enforcement.

Frank Smith, the owner of Island Triathlon and Bike and a licensed road safety bike instructor, said he thinks O'ahu streets are "actually not that bad" for bikers.

But he said what can get people into trouble is a lack of education. Not all cyclists or drivers know the rules of the road, and some cyclists get onto streets without the proper equipment and focus. He said it's imperative that a biker riding with traffic be wearing something that can be seen easily. He also said it's important as a biker to pay close attention at all times to traffic and anticipate what cars will do.

Smith said he hadn't seen the new city plan, but he wasn't convinced it will change things by much.

"This stuff goes around again and again and ... it always seems like kind of an excuse to not really do anything," he said.

But he did agree that relatively cheap fixes can mean big improvements for bicyclists.

A well-paved street, he said, can make for a smoother drive for cars and a safer ride for bikes.

"Fully half of all cycling crashes involve you and the road," he said, because of potholes, ruts or debris in the street.

That's one of the reasons Smith isn't a fan of designated bike lanes.

He said the lanes collect debris because cars — which he calls "street sweepers" - steer clear of them.