Make way for bikes

Now that the long-awaited project to repave Wai­alae Avenue is finally pau, local transportation officials are gearing up to make the major Kai­muki corridor safer for bicyclists.

Starting in late August or early September, those traveling past the storefronts and homes lining the busy east-west corridor from Kapa­hulu Avenue to the H-1 freeway will find new designated bike lanes and "sharrows" — painted arrows along the street shoulder for bicyclists to share the road.

It’s part of a larger push to bring Oahu up to speed with better bike infrastructure after years of neglect, and to encourage more commuters to consider using bicycles instead of cars. Despite the island’s favorable year-round weather, some 1.6 percent of Hono­lulu commuters use a bicycle to get to work, ranking it 14th in that category among the 70 largest cities in the nation, a 2010 U.S. Census Bureau study found.

"I think the city’s done a good job," said Todd Roll, owner of Pedal Bike Tours. "We’re here because the city is bikable."

Earlier this year the bicycle tour company opened a Wai­kiki location to complement its other site in Portland, Ore. — the city that ranked at the top of that same 2010 Census study.

However, Honolulu can still do a better job "connecting the dots" with bike-friendly routes between where residents live and work so they encounter fewer "sketchy" stretches where they’re worried about their safety, Roll added.

A 2012 bicycle master plan done for the city found 310 miles of additional bikeways needed in the next 20 to 30 years at a cost of some $68 million. The city has budgeted nearly $2.4 million for this fiscal year for bikeway-related projects, including some $650,000 in studies and plans, according to the city Department of Transportation Services.

The Waialae re-striping is one of several places where city officials are looking to make bikeway improvements less expensive by coordinating them with a five-year plan to repave the worst roads on Oahu. Other recently repaved roadways where designated bike lanes and sharrows have been added include Kala­kaua Avenue and Young, Dole, Wai­lua and Coyne streets, according to DTS Director Mike Formby.

Cyclists can also look forward to better options on King Street from Isen­berg Street to downtown. By December the city hopes to have completed a "protected bike lane" pilot project, in which cars that park on the mauka side of the street will be moved out one lane, creating a bike lane between the sidewalk curb and those parked cars.

It’s a two-year pilot project, but Formby said he’s confident the protected lane will remain in place after that study period ends. Before those two years are up, the city further plans to move the cars parked mauka even farther out, to create an additional bike lane that would accommodate bicyclists heading in both directions on King, Formby said.

The move is not expected to affect the amount of cars that use King, he added. City transportation officials aim to eventually add more such protected bike lanes on major roadways in town, such as Ward Avenue and Pensacola and Pii­koi streets, Formby said.

ENLARGE PHOTO.