Honolulu's Congestion-Fighting Strategy: Build Protected Bicycle Lane Network

Honolulu's strategy to deal with "crippling car traffic" is to build more lanes—protected bicycle lanes, that is. More specifically, a "grid" of these lanes that have been shown to increase cycling by addressing the safety factor.

An opening ceremony for King Street's protected bike lane in December. Photo: Being 808 via PeopleForBikes.

Plans call for protected bike lanes to be built on South Street and on the "mauka-makai routes to be installed eventually on Ward Avenue, Keeaumoku, McCully, Pensacola and Piikoi streets," writes Marcel Honoré for the Honolulu Star-Advertiser. The plans were unveiled at a Tuesday meeting on the protected bike lane network.

The expansion ties in with two other transportation projects: the future bikeshare and the city's future elevated guideway, operational by 2019 according to plan if all goes well. Plans were unveiled at the meeting "to eventually install a protected bike lane on Halekauwila Street," underneath the guideway.

“These aren’t just bike projects, they’re policy statements” that include redesigning local streets so that they provide more options than just cars, city Department of Transportation Services Director Mike Formby said. 

The new lanes will supplement "the King Street protected lane, also known as the cycle track, a pilot project installed on the mauka side of the street about nine months ago at a cost of about $500,000," writes Honoré. "The city removed 11 parking spaces on the outside of the lane to improve visibility, deputy director of transportation Mark Garrity told the (Tuesday meeting) crowd."

Hat tip to AASHTO's Daily Journal Update: Pedestrians/Bicycles section.