Verbatim: Councilmember Ikaika Anderson addresses Windward traffic concerns

Honolulu City Councilmember Ikaika Anderson released the following announcement regarding traffic concerns with the Windward community. Anderson represents Waimanalo, Kailua, and most of Kaneohe:

Addressing Traffic Concerns with the Community

I’d like to share with you some updates on a couple of community issues, relating to traffic, that we’ve been working on. While these issues may not directly affect you, I hope that you’ll take a minute to read about how we are addressing some of the concerns in our community. 

Keapuka Subdivision in Kaneohe

Last Wednesday, in conjunction with Sen. Jill Tokuda, Rep. Ken Ito, and representatives from the City’s Department of Transportation Services (DTS) I held a meeting regarding traffic concerns in the Keapuka subdivision of Kaneohe. The goal of the meeting was to retrieve information from the residents, and to determine solutions that could mitigate traffic violations and morning back-ups that occur along Anoi and Luluku Roads. Some of the suggestions brought up at the meeting were as follows, but not limited to: install additional stop signs in various locations of Keapuka, initiate a pilot round-a-bout project to determine whether this would warrant a permanent fixture, stripe various turns and easements, place speed bumps in areas where the roadway is less than 18ft, adjust traffic signal timing, and create additional turning lanes where necessary.

With the use of meter cards, the DTS will be collecting data in the Keapuka subdivsion to determine speed and the number of vehicles using Anoi and Luluku roads. Once the data is compiled and analyzed, the DTS will come back to the community to make recommendations for the community to decide upon.

In addition to the suggested solutions, the Community Traffic Awareness Program (CTAP), sponsored by the Honolulu Police Department should begin to be executed as a way to temporary resolve the speeding. Residents, along with HPD will stand together in the neighborhood to remind drivers to slow down in their subdivision. My office will be working with the community and HPD to initiate a CTAP.

I am thankful for the community’s time and appreciate the ideas and suggestions that came out of the meeting. Our office will monitor this issue and work with Sen. Tokuda, Rep. Ito, and the City’s DTS to see that this situation is improved.

Maunawili Falls Traffic

Over the last month, our office has been compiling the responses we received to several suggestions put forward by Maunawili residents to help address the on-going congestion near the entrance to Maunawili Falls. As with any suggestion or request for changes in traffic patterns, traffic control devices, or parking restrictions, our office and DTS want to ensure that the request has the near-unanimous support of the community. To this end our office shared the request with the community and solicited their input. Once we have completed compiling all the responses our office will be meeting with the community association to discuss the results and the next step.   

When this subdivision was designed, no one ever anticipated that this quiet little area would one day become a world famous attraction. For many years the residents have witnessed an exponential increase in traffic and parking problems as more and more visitors come to see experience the famous Maunawili Falls trail. While the City has tried to address some of the problems through increased enforcement of parking laws, the simple fact of the matter is that a significant change is needed if the traffic problems are ever going to be resolved. 

The suggestions of some of the area residents certainly offered a cost-effective and novel approach to helping to mitigate some of the traffic problems and associated safety concerns but they don’t address the underlying issue; lack of sufficient parking for the volume of visitors. In an attempt to try and address the capacity issue, Sen. Tokuda, Rep. Chong, and I are looking into a cost-effective means of securing land near the trail-head to develop a parking lot for use by the visitors—something that many community members have expressed support for. When we meet with the community to discuss the aforementioned requests, we will also discuss the development of a parking lot and how best to manage it so as to not create any additional adverse impacts on the community. Although this will not be a quick or easy process, Sen. Tokuda, Rep. Chong, and I believe that this is the best solution to the on-going parking problem in Maunawili.