Honolulu Star-Advertiser

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EditorialOff the News

Off the News: Booking ‘pods’ of tourists

One adaptation as tourism charts its way through a pandemic may be a “small is beautiful” mode.

Business leader Alan Oshima, tapped as the state’s economic “navigator,” had an online discussion with Gov. David Ige last week. Oshima said he was impressed by a visitor-industry presentation about reservations systems’ abilities to book guests into “pods” of 10 or fewer, making contact tracing easier, if any of the pod-mates tests positive. The era of the big tour bus may be behind us, for now.

Few pedestrians for new crosswalk

A just-installed pilot pedestrian scramble crosswalk at Kalakaua Avenue and Lewers Street allows crossing in any direction, including diagonally, during the signal’s exclusive pedestrian crossing phase, which halts all vehicular traffic. Designed and painted by the city’s Transportation Services and Facility Maintenance departments, the wide-striped approach is likely a good fit for any Waikiki intersection that typically sees a lot of foot traffic.

However, because of the loss of overall traffic caused by COVID-19, we have to wait before the city can gauge whether the crosswalk passes the pilot test.

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