Honolulu and Manila lead the way in using streets to move people, not cars

Congratulations to the beautiful city of Honolulu for its recent opening of the first major urban bikeway in the city — the King Street Cycle Track.

It is the beginning of a new experiment: moving people across town on a major urban corridor in a more efficient, and indeed, in a healthier manner.

One way to evaluate the controversy surrounding this experiment is to look at the Philippines, where a radical new "road sharing" movement is already beginning to transform the road system.

This road-sharing movement is composed of people fed up with a transpor- tation system that’s not only unfair, inconvenient and expensive, but promotes lifestyle diseases and greenhouse gases.

Using the power of the people, coupled with the power of the law, this movement proposes to divide village roads in half length- wise, with one-half devoted to good public transportation and the other half for good sidewalks and bike lanes, and even edible urban gardens.

An event in Manila yesterday (Sunday) showed how this idea can work. From 5 a.m. to midnight, a major artery called Roxas Boulevard was divided lengthwise. (This seaside road is the equivalent of Kalakaua Avenue.) One-half of the road was set aside solely for people walking and biking in orderly lanes. The other half of the road was set aside for motor vehicles running in both directions. This is an example of road sharing. In Filipino, it’s called Bayanihan sa Daan — or cooperative heroism.

Honolulu, too, is experimenting with a new way of road-sharing. Mayor Kirk Caldwell and the city Department of Transportation Services created Hawaii’s first protected bike lane. Despite early strong objections from people who drive, 53 percent of Oahu’s population now supports the cycle track, just two months after its creation, according to a recent Star-Advertiser poll.

I salute Mayor Caldwell for this bold move. It’s an excellent example of the often-missing element in governance — "political will."

Congratulations also to the people of Honolulu for understanding that roads are meant to move people, not motor vehicles.

The poll also found that while 78 percent of those surveyed would not use the cycle track, 21 percent said they would.

Does this represent a repudiation of the pilot project?

No. On the contrary, it’s a very good start.

The current percentage of Honolulu residents who commute by bicycle is just 2.4 percent; if the cycle track encourages 21 percent of residents to use it, that’s a resounding success. Wait until families start riding the track on Sundays for good family fun. That number will skyrocket so high, other streets will begin to ask for it.

Today, actions in both Honolulu and Manila show the world a peaceful revolution of the mind. That revolution has already begun in another important way in Honolulu. Elected officials have adopted "Complete Streets," referring to streets that are for everyone to use, meaning that people who want to walk and bike can do so with properly allocated spaces. The Hawaii Bicycling League, a very committed group of people, is helping to make that happen.

While the traffic problems of Manila and Hono-lulu are far from the same, what is the same is the need for a new kind of thinking. As people see the options and keep their minds open, a new mindset may take shape — a mindset that favors people first.

Inspired by the example of King Street, and by the process of cross-pollination of ideas between Honolulu and Manila, these two cities may yet show us the way.