KAPAA — Olohena Road has been repainted to accommodate bike lanes on the stretch from the roundabout at the bottom of the hill, near Malu Road, to just past the Kapaa Middle School. It was a surprise for the County
KAPAA — Olohena Road has been repainted to accommodate bike lanes on the stretch from the roundabout at the bottom of the hill, near Malu Road, to just past the Kapaa Middle School.
It was a surprise for the County Council on Wednesday, when a resolution to approve the already completed project crossed their table.
“The project that was done requires a council resolution prior to doing the work,” said Council Chairman Mel Rapozo. “You don’t go repaint the roads, realign the roads, and then come to council and say ‘Oh, we were supposed to come here first.’”
The road was striped three months ago, according to chief engineer Michael Moule, while the public works department was doing its resurfacing project.
“In the highway transportation plan, long term, this whole road should have shoulders, or bike lanes, or sidewalks,” Moule said. “In this point, we did what we could with the resurfacing project to achieve as much as we could.”
Moule acknowledged that not bringing the project to the council before it began was a slip-up on the part of public works.
“It was an oversight not to bring it before council; my apologies,” he said.
As is concurrent with other bike lane projects on the island, the uphill side of Olohena Road has been striped to include a bike lane on the shoulder and the downhill side of the road has been structured to incorporate bicycles into the general flow of traffic.
“So that bikers that are riding slower uphill can be passed by motorists without going over the center line,” Moule said. “On the uphill side, when bikers are climbing at 4 miles per hour, then there’s a separation (between bikes and cars).”
The presence of Kapaa Middle School was one of the driving factors for putting in the bike lanes to provide a safer route to school for kids.
“The middle school is a major destination,” Moule said. “After that, there’s several hundred feet and then it ends, and then just do what they otherwise would have done to share the lanes.”
Moule said the plan for the rest of Olohena Road hasn’t been set in stone, but he doesn’t think bike lanes should be created going farther down the road.
“My personal recommendation with respect to Olohena Road going the rest of the way would be shoulders, but probably not designated bike lanes, because it’s in a rural setting,” Moule said.
Councilman Ross Kagawa said not providing markings on the rest of the road could maybe be a good thing.
“My fear is that when we put these bike symbols, that we’re encouraging more people to please use Olohena Road as a means of transport. I think the road is substandard and too narrow and we don’t want to encourage people to ride their bike from Kapaa Town to Wailua Homesteads,” Kagawa said. “You drive or catch the bus, which is much safer, and not endangering (cyclists’) lives and drivers.”
