![]() ![]() He said the state had conducted a 12-hour observation of the Kaai crosswalk, and found usage was “very low.” Waa Street will get a traffic light, which will allow its crosswalk to remain in place.Īt the meeting in October 2016, DOT official Bryan Kimura said few people would be adversely affected by closing the Kaai Street crosswalk and bus stops. Kaai and the mid-block crossing were eliminated. In the aftermath of Soneda’s 2015 death, three crosswalks in Aina Haina were affected, including Kaai, another mid-block crosswalk and nearby Waa Street. 7, Maqbul ur-Rahman, 86, was hit while crossing Hawaii Kai Drive about 100 feet from where the city had mistakenly removed a crosswalk months earlier, the Associated Press reported. In Oahu’s first pedestrian fatality of this year Jan. Transit officials evaluated 35 crosswalks for relocation, closure or traffic signal installation, according to the state’s Highway Safety Annual Report. In 20, as pedestrian fatalities increased in the islands, the DOT began to focus on crosswalks without traffic signals throughout Oahu as a particular risk. It includes both hillside and oceanside communities. The district extends more than 4 miles along Kalanianaole Highway from Kalaniki Street to Kuliouou Street, from the edge of Waialae to the edge of Hawaii Kai. ![]() They presented it to that particular board because its jurisdiction includes the area in question. 6, 2016, when a pair of officials - one from the state and one from the city - unveiled it as a proposal under consideration. The plan to remove the crosswalk and relocate the bus stops had actually been a subject of discussion at the Kuliouou/Kalani Iki Neighborhood Board since Oct. An improvised bus stop on the Kalanianaole Highway in Aina Haina near “One day the bus stop just disappeared,” said Yoneda, who has lived on the same street since 1949. These changes, which affected about 80 homes, caught Kaai Street residents by surprise because many were unaware that the issue was under consideration by the city, the state and the neighborhood board. ![]() Three nearby bus stops were eliminated and two located at Kaai Street were relocated farther east, to improvised stops near Wailupe Circle, about one-fifth of a mile away. In collaboration with the city, the DOT took out the closest bus stops, too, because of fears that people would cross at dangerous locations to get to them. Without traffic lights, motorists are less likely to see pedestrians. In the aftermath of Soneda’s death, the state Department of Transportation decided to remove two crosswalks that lacked traffic lights on the highway, including the one at Kaai. The speed limit is 35 mph, but it is also an extension of the H-1 freeway and some of the 80,000 motorists who drive through the residential neighborhoods there each day treat it more like a racetrack.įor residents in the neighborhoods on both sides, the highway has become a formidable barrier blocking movement between the hilly slopes of Aina Haina and the ocean. Kalanianaole Highway is a particularly dangerous road for pedestrians. She was struck and killed near Wailupe Beach Park, which is located across the highway and a little west of Kaai Street. The woman who died, Cynthia Timtim Soneda, was a beloved physician at Kaiser Permanente who was run over while jogging on Kalanianaole Highway one morning in June 2015. The new bus stops are actually more dangerous than they were before, longtime residents say. “I tell my dog, ‘We’re not going to cross now,’” said Tagawa. ![]() Ruth Tagawa, 80, a retired teacher who uses a walker, now drives routinely because it is unsafe to try to cross the highway. Jaimie Kinard, 38, a city employee, said she sometimes jaywalks to get across quickly. Lillian Yoneda, 88, a retired bank administrator, dreads the longer walk to and from the bus stop now that she no longer drives. Now it’s harder to get to the beach, harder to catch the bus and more practical to drive, especially for elderly residents who might otherwise walk or use public transportation. To make the streets safer, the state removed the crosswalk across busy Kalanianaole Highway and the city moved its bus stops. Life changed on Kaai Street in Aina Haina after a pedestrian was killed near homes there a few years ago. ![]()
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