Motorists’ irritation with a traffic bottleneck on Waialae Avenue at 5th Avenue could snuff out the bicycling community’s hope for a bike lane in Kaimuki.

The city conducted a three-day study along Waialae Avenue last month to see whether traffic could flow through the five-lane road if it were reduced to four lanes between 11th Avenue and Old Waialae Road.

The traffic that resulted from the study annoyed several business proprietors and persuaded them to oppose the bike lane. Fred Martinez of Jose’s Mexican Cafe & Cantina fears customers will go elsewhere rather than fight traffic.

Wayne Yoshioka, director of the Department of Transportation Services, said the study led to two major findings:

» An annoyance to drivers due to a bottleneck at 5th Avenue that backs up traffic in the Ewa-bound direction between 7 and 8 a.m.

» Support for a bike lane because traffic is not that bad with only four lanes during the afternoon peak periods, other times of the day and weekends.

Yoshioka said the bottleneck is worsened by vehicles lining up for the McDonald’s driveway in the right lane and drivers trying to turn left into Sacred Hearts Academy.

He said engineers plan to talk with Sacred Hearts and look for other ways to ease the bottleneck. If a solution cannot be found, a bike lane on Waialae Avenue might not be practical and the city would add "sharrows" — markings to let motorists know that bicyclists are present, he said.

But the city is looking for a solution because Waialae Avenue has been identified as a high-priority bicycling corridor in the city’s draft bicycle master plan, which was developed with a considerable amount of community input, Yoshioka said.

The study’s final results and possible solutions will be released in a month or two, he added.

If the study determines Waialae Avenue could be reduced to four lanes of traffic, the city will decide whether to add one or two bike lanes. One lane could be installed in the Koko Head-direction, but a second bike lane in the Ewa-bound direction would require removing 22 parking stalls on the mauka side of Waialae Avenue.

Yoshioka said the city will get feedback from bicyclists, motorists, businesses and residents before deciding.

Some businesses and residents were turned off by the idea of changing traffic for a bicycle lane, especially after the study.

Ian Beattie, co-owner of NZ Salon on Waialae Avenue, said side streets were busier as vehicles turned off Waialae Avenue to avoid the traffic. He said he didn’t schedule appointments during the study because he was concerned about having no street parking.

"It’s not practical," Beattie said. "If you weigh the options, you’re going to have to side with the community and the community needs five lanes."

But cyclists said more people would ride bikes if the roads were safer. "I think there is a pent-up demand," said Dan Sadler, a University of Hawaii at Manoa oceanographer. People at the university "want to ride their bike, but they say it isn’t safe. If we can make it safe, a lot more people will be coming by bike."