McCully Street bike lanes to eliminate up to 30 parking spots
CRAIG T. KOJIMA / CKOJIMA@STARADVERTISER.COM
The approximately 2-mile-long bikeway on King Street near the Blaisdell Center.
With a tough re-election contest behind him, Mayor Kirk Caldwell and his administration will soon resume work on one of Honolulu’s hottest issues: bike lanes in the heart of the city.
In January the city’s Department of Transportation Services will replace up to 30 cramped parking spots on McCully Street between Kapiolani Boulevard and South Beretania Street with striped bike lanes on both sides of the street, according to DTS Acting Director Mark Garrity.
The move, city officials say, aims to create a bike route between Waikiki and the University of Hawaii at Manoa — as well as the first mauka-makai spur with the city’s first protected bike lane, on South King Street.
“They never should have allowed parking there. There just isn’t sufficient space,” Garrity said of that stretch of McCully Street. Each side of the road would need to be at least 17 feet wide to fit a lane of travel plus parking based on nationally recognized standards — but McCully is only 15 feet wide on either side, he said.
“It’s a very dangerous situation,” he added. “Striping it for a bike lane is actually the best thing we can do.”
DTS further plans to install a protected bike lane on South Street as early February, he said. Caldwell first announced in August 2015 plans to install that lane by the end of that year, but city officials later put the project on hold indefinitely because they said they needed to gather more community feedback and tweak designs.
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While Caldwell has made clear his goal of creating a robust network of bike lanes in urban Honolulu, the issue rarely came up during this year’s competitive mayoral race against Charles Djou, a former congressman.
DTS officials were slated to brief the McCully/Moiliili Neighborhood Board on the McCully Street bike lane plan Thursday, about three weeks after Caldwell won re-election.
“It’s true, the mayor always says that bike lanes were the most contentious thing he’s done and has created a lot of feedback, both positive and negative,” Gar-rity said earlier in the day Thursday. “And now that the election season is over … he definitely wants to leave as a legacy a network of protected bike lines.”
The approximately 2-mile-long bikeway on King Street has received a mix of praise and scorn from the community in its first two years, but city officials say that by giving cyclists their own space, the protected lane has made that major town thoroughfare safer than it was prior for drivers, cyclists and pedestrians to travel together.
DTS traffic counts from last month recorded 983 daily bike trips on the King Street lane, and city officials expect that more riders will use the lane if they have more mauka-makai spurs, such those on McCully and South.
“McCully is very narrow. … Going into traffic as a bicyclist with cars parked is very hard to do,” said Natalie Iwasa, a community advocate and cyclist. She added that she hoped the city might find a way to replace the parking lost there “because I know that’s going to be an issue.”
Drivers “end up parking on corners, they end up parking in front of fire hydrants because they have to have a place,” she said. “It’s really kind of a tough issue on that particular street.”
City officials are also considering bike lanes for Piikoi Street, Garrity said.
47 responses to “McCully Street bike lanes to eliminate up to 30 parking spots”
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Don’t we have a say in this? Carlisle said IF elected mayor, the first thing he would do is to remove the King Street cycle path. All this for 3% of the population with half of them being the homeless. However, McCully Street should not have parking because it is narrow. Instead the lanes should be widen And wouldn’t Isenberg or University be better?
Agreed! Stop the madness.
Go down University Avenue, but you cannot get across the Ala Wai Canal.
Democrat politicians always pander to the minority groups just to give the bulk of the tax payers the middle finger every single time. Just look at what Democrat politicians spend most of the time and money on…
* Bums
* Bike Lanes
* Transgender Restrooms
* Syrian and Somali Refugees/Terrorists
* Illegals and their free healthcare, school and under the table all cash jobs (hence no income tax to report.)
You’ll never see a Democrat politician actually pander to the middle class that pays for all this.
but we keep voting in the same clowns cycle after cycle…we the sheeple are guided by those that know what’s best for us…sad sad sad!
There’s no WE in this one! hahahaha Unfortunately, the majority of the voters here on Gilligan’s Island are still “D” for some bizarre reason but I feel it will change if they get whacked hard enough by the bad choices they make. I’ve lived in states that were once all “D” and thankfully changed after getting a nasty taste of their own bad choices at some point. I’m just here to help others out to get them to see what a mess we’re in so they can get their head on straight and make better choices in the future.
You know Dragon , I finally figured it out , been bothering me for years. Those guys all vote for the guys with the (D) behind the name cuz the (R) and the (L) are just too far back in the alphabet to remember.
That’s got to be it , it can’t be because it is a smart move .
You forgot the rail to the sky . No start , no end , no power . No riders . 10 Billion at last guess, or at least that is the highest they want to admit.
Yes! Make the roads more bike friendly please!
Especially with the rail coming, we need to allow alternative ways for people to get to the rail stops. Driving to the rail stop seems pointless. But being able to bike to the rail stop would be amazing.
Good for bikers indeed, but this State is not a bike riding society. look at all of us!
I don’t see why driving to rail stops is “pointless.” On the mainland there are many “park n ride” lots where you’d drive your car to a main lot where commuter buses went. Same idea.
One person’s utopia is another person’s hell.
True dat!
The problem with this is exactly what you say…one person…you have to sit and watch to see how little used the bike lane on South King Street is. Moreover how dangerous it is for cars coming out of businesses who must look BOTH ways now with bikers speeding down the bike lanes against vehicular flow. Some will say the drivers need to be more attentive, but some of them are seniors who don’t need one more thing to look out for. Add the insult of bikers on the makai side of South King Street on the sidewalks bullying pedestrians and the madness is complete.
Political correctness gone mad.
Will moped riders use these lanes also?…or unicycles with juggling clowns.
Mopeds already use the bike lane on S. King St & going both directions. Also saw skateboarders. Just be ready to be stuck in road closures if bike lanes are installed on McCully. There will be more car vs bicycle crashes due to too many intersecting streets.
More reason to dump the car and ride the Bus?
What bus? They’ll kill “Da Bus” as soon as the rail is complete. Then again, “Da Bus” might be around for another 30 years before they ever complete the rail to nowhere.
By the time it is over it will be busses on the sky rail. No power plant needed.
Trump was elected because he catered to the silent majority, not to the people who just made noises and protested–the Republicans in this State should take heed. Just look at the number of Republicans elected since Obama took office–it’s a landslide-
except in ONE State???????? One reason we in Hawaii don’t set our time back is that we’re already 8 years behind!!
Well, I wouldn’t say one state, there is only one more state that is far more messed up than ours and beyond any repair, that’s California! This is what happens what politicians pander to bums, unions and illegals that slowly outnumber the working middle class at the voting booth and then they vote and tell us, the tax payers, who owns who’s a$$!
Actually, Caldwell and Trump are both playing the same game–wait until AFTER the election, then tell the voters what you’re going to do.
I stopped commuting from Waipahu, moved to Makiki, and take the King Street Cycle Track into downtown 5 days a week. In my office high rise alone, there are some 15 bikes parked there daily (don’t know how many use the cycle track). The cycle track makes my 2-mile bike commute safer, and takes me off the road with my car for 10 trips a week, lessening traffic. Yes, some of the bikers using the cycle track are homeless, but students and professionals like myself also use the track. It’s not perfect, but it’s far better than riding in a traffic lane, slowing traffic, which is legal. I’m saving 8,320 commute miles a year, which benefits every driver that goes into downtown! If we had a networked set of bike lanes, you could make 983 into 5000 pretty quickly, and I’m guessing then, you’d see no difference in traffic, with reduced traffic lanes but fewer cars on the road.
Why not ride on the sidewalk? I know it’s illegal in some areas but then again who cares!? S_T_U_P_I_D laws need to be revoked or just plain not enforced. I’ve always ridden on sidewalks with the exception of the most busy ones full of pedestrians and have always yielded right of way to pedestrians. Never had an issue not even with the cops next to me as they observed and noticed how courteous I was to very very few pedestrians actually using the sidewalk. Never got a citation and stayed safe for numerous years by avoiding to ride on the street as much as possible.
Stay off the sidewalks! More than once, I’ve been nearly runned over by a bicyclist coming up fast behind me. If I had taken just one step to the side, there would have been a collision. Many a times I felt like “accidentally” clotheslining one of those inconsiderate b–tards!
Dreaming, not with the massive development and resulting population push by this clown mayor. Your one of a very few. BTW does your employer have showers?
LOL ! I needed that.
Who is going to pay for all this bike lane work?
State needs to come up with a way to assess a yearly charge to all bike riders. Let them get some skin in the game. Basically “Pay to Ride.”
Fair is fair. Let them pay “Their fair share” of all bike lane cost. Lets start off with a $120 a year charge and a $10 processing and handling fee.
Git’r done!
Exactly…auto owners are forced to pay higher and higher registration fees but bicyclists pay a one time fee and that’s it…infrastructure goes up to protect them. The cost should be fairly distributed. Before anyone says anything I do ride a bike occasionally and would not mind paying higher fees IF instead of putting up bike lanes, we widen sidewalks to make it both bicycle and pedestrian friendly.
Widening the sidewalks for bikes is the same as adding a bike lane as far as car traffic is concerned. Why not take it to the next step and just make a dedicated bike lane in the first place? Bikes and pedestrians doe not mix well.
We all pay for roadwork.
No, the gas taxes are supposed to pay for road maintenance. Bike riders are using the roads but not paying the tax, as local guy said, this should be corrected.
Gas taxes do not cover all road work. Please take a look at pg. 7 of the most recent city budget http://www4.honolulu.gov/docushare/dsweb/Get/Document-185564/DOC005%20(16).PDF. (“GN” stands for general fund, which includes mainly real property taxes but other fees as well.)
Share the load wont happen because of enforcement so it can never be equitable.
If they going to ride on roadway in the city make them buy a sticker every year or so.
Help pay for the never never rail.
Of course Caldwell wants to penalize young families with kids and others who must drive. And yet neither the mayor nor city council members are riding their bikes to work. But the people voted for this kind of abuse when they elected the clown mayor. The absolute snake face, rail crook and taxpayer abuser is making Oahu just like a typical mainland city full of mainlanders just like himself.
The voters overwhelmingly supported making Honolulu pedestrian and bicycle friendly.
Can we take a mulligan?
It’s not very likely, unless you can get enough people to sign a petition and put it on the ballot in 2018.
Opps. My comment went in the wrong place.
The City recently added a bike lane to Beretania St, eliminating all parking on the Mauka side between Keeaumoku and Piikoi. I didn’t see any announcements of this. Was it discussed at the neighborhood board meetings? Why is this new bike lane necessary when the King St bike lane is already a two-way lane?
There have actually been quite a lot of meetings about bike lanes in Honolulu. Here’s the Oahu Bike Plan for your reference – https://www.honolulu.gov/bicycle/bicyclefacilities/oahu-bike-plan.html.
I’m sure that really makes the car owners “happy”. LOL
Caldwell’s folly.
Maybe he should stick to managing a bike lane system. He cannot effectively manage a “real” project like the rail system.
More chaos.