Traffic signal adjustments at two of Waikiki’s most congested intersections might make life easier for local drivers who cringe at navigating through the tourist-heavy district amid throngs of pedestrians.
City officials and Waikiki business leaders introduced a new traffic setup Monday at Kalakaua and Royal Hawaiian avenues that allows pedestrians to cross the street at the same time in every direction. They also can use a freshly painted diagonal crosswalk that cuts through the middle of the intersection.
With the new setup, known as a "Barnes Dance" among traffic engineers, lights at the intersection are synchronized to stop all the cars and let all the pedestrians cross — and then stop all the pedestrians and let the vehicles proceed.
The goal of using the setup in Waikiki, officials said, is to curb the headaches for drivers who often have to wait on a wall of people to cross the street before they can turn right off Kalakaua and into the Sheraton Waikiki, the Royal Hawaiian and other nearby seaside resorts, shops and restaurants there.
"Some folks just give up and go home," Mayor Kirk Caldwell said of those drivers Monday. "We believe this will make a dramatic improvement."
The system separating vehicle and pedestrian traffic has already been in place for more than 15 years one block over, on Seaside Avenue, officials say. They also plan to have it in place Sunday at Lewers Street and Kalakaua.
Caldwell said the changes at the Royal Hawaiian Avenue crossing, completed overnight from Sunday to Monday, cost $5,000 using city resources, versus $30,000 if the work had been contracted out.
The changes were recommended in a 2012 Waikiki traffic study commissioned by the city’s Department of Transportation Services and done by consulting firm Parsons Brinckerhoff, according to a city news release.
That study, however, has not been released publicly, and city officials say it’s still under review. The cost of the study has not been disclosed.
The study’s additional recommendations aren’t ready for release, but the public could expect traffic changes at Waikiki’s two "gateway" areas, Eric Masutomi, chairman of a group called the Waikiki Transportation Stakeholders Oversight Committee, said Monday.
"When we’re ready to do it, we’ll announce it," Caldwell said.
The traffic changes aren’t aimed to help only the drivers. Bob Finley, a Waikiki Neighborhood Board member, said Waikiki residents will find it easier to walk around.
The city doesn’t have plans to convert any other Waikiki intersections, Caldwell said.
"If there are other bottlenecks, we’ll look at them," he said. "But I think these are the two big ones."
"We want local traffic to be coming into Waikiki," added Melvin Kaneshige, executive vice president of real estate and development for Outrigger Enterprises Group, which developed Waikiki Beach Walk. Traffic actually flows pretty well along Kalakaua, but "it’s only when you have to make these rights" that the conditions jam, Kaneshige said.
