Low usage, high costs doom emergency roadside phones

Question: Will the emergency roadside phones be replaced on the H-1 freeway, specifically, between the Kapolei end toward Pearl City? The emergency phones can be a lifesaver as not everyone has a cellphone.

Answer: None of the emergency phones will be replaced.

It turns out the state

Department of Transportation began removing all roadside cellular callboxes — approximately 276 of them — from Oahu freeways and highways over the past six months.

The reason: dwindling usage and rising costs.

Between 2001 and 2011 use of the callboxes dropped by 86 percent as personal cellphones became increasingly commonplace, said DOT spokeswoman Caroline Sluyter.

In 2001 a total of 2,634 assistance calls were made by motorists, she said. Ten years later that number had dropped to 361.

"Cellular service and callbox maintenance in this same year (2011) cost $314,000, creating a price tag of $870 per call — a figure that will likely continue to rise as call frequency declines," Sluyter said.

She also said other factors are driving costs higher, over time making the program even less cost-effective.

Cellular service charges have increased from approximately $3,000 per month to $13,000 to $15,000 per month, she said, and callboxes continue to require replacement every year.

Forty callboxes needed to be replaced to meet current cellular hardware standards at a cost of $1,700 each, Sluyter said. Additionally, five to eight callboxes are damaged each year by vehicle collisions.

"Long-term maintenance is also an issue as only one local contractor is an authorized representative able to perform repairs on the callbox models used," she said.

Sluyter pointed out that roadside callboxes are not required by the Federal Highway Administration, and no federal funds are available for their upkeep.

All funding for callboxes comes from the state’s Highway Special Funds.

Those are the same funds that "pay for such necessities as pavement resurfacing, pothole repairs, street lighting, signage, landscaping, tree trimming, graffiti removal and other highway maintenance," Sluyter said.

What’s the Recourse

Sluyter said the DOT’s Freeway Service Patrol provides free help to stranded motorists on the H-1 and

H-201 (Moanalua) freeways, from University Avenue to Kunia Road, and on the H-2 freeway to Ka Uka Boulevard, covering 23 miles, from 5 a.m. to 7 p.m. weekdays, excluding holidays.

The patrol area will be expanded as funding becomes available, she said.

Meanwhile, "Motorists are encouraged to keep their vehicles maintained to reduce breakdowns and to have (the patrol’s) phone number (841-4357) programmed in their cellphones or in their vehicles in case of breakdowns," she said.

Mahalo

To a city parks worker and a homeless man. My husband and I were visiting in February to attend a family wedding. On our final day on Oahu, we walked to Kapiolani Park and strolled along the beach, sitting on benches along the way. It wasn’t until we made a purchase that I realized my purse, containing the ID

I needed at the airport, was gone. We rushed back to the park as fast as two older folks can go, to no avail. But at the last place a homeless man on a bicycle asked what we were looking for. When my husband responded, he said, "We have it!" He said

he noticed the purse, and when no one came back for it, he notified the parks worker, who locked it up, everything intact, in a security building. We rewarded both men, but the parks worker said, "I have a job, he doesn’t. I’ll give this to him." The homeless man could have used the contents of that purse, but instead was honest and asked for nothing in return. We will never forget these men and their acts of kindness.

— Charlie Caton, Lakeside, Calif.

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