Chad Taniguchi

It was a bus strike that got Chad Taniguchi back on his bike.

The executive director of the Hawaii Bicycling League was a routine cyclist until he was 25 years old, but then fell out of the habit. In 2003, at age 52, he started commuting to work by bike again, when labor strife stalled his usual ride. Now, at 63, Taniguchi relies on both modes of transportation, cycling from his Kailua home to the bus stop, catching TheBus over the Pali, and finishing the trip to his Kaimuki office under his own power.

"It works out to about 10 miles a day. That’s nothing on a bike," said Taniguchi, who pedals the entire distance every now and then "for a real workout."

He’s convinced that Oahu would be a more livable island, with healthier and happier residents, if more people hopped on their bikes.

The Hawaii Bicycling League (hbl.org) helps make that happen through a combination of advocacy, pushing for protected bike lanes such as the King Street Cycle Track; education, including free classes that teach everyone from kids to seniors how to safely traverse Oahu’s streets; and events, such as guided group rides. Leaders of the nonprofit group also give talks reminding pedestrians, cyclists and motorists of laws intended to help all coexist.

Born and raised on Kauai, Taniguchi earned a bachelor’s degree in ethnic studies and a law degree from the University of Hawaii. After a long career in government service, including about three years as director of the Hawaii Public Housing Authority, he took the helm of the HBL in 2010.

After biking through the work week, Taniguchi, who has two grown children and one grandchild, spends his weekend leisure time swimming, hiking, singing and practicing the ukulele.

"I always thought that I had absolutely no musical ability, but with coaching and encouragement from my wife, I can at least sing and play a creditable song," said Taniguchi, who took up the hobby two years ago. "Maybe that’s an analogy for bicycling, too. We’re here to give people the encouragement and coaching to get started."

QUESTION: Let’s start with the King Street Cycle Track. Is it living up to you folks’ expectations? …

ANSWER: Yes. It’s almost two months since it opened and I see many more cyclists on King Street than before. … You have to look at it from the perspective of, ‘Is the protected lane encouraging more people to ride a bike?’ It definitely is. We have people who are in their 60s, 70s and 80s, who are deciding to ride bikes instead of driving. We have some children biking to school now on it. … If we get more (protected lanes), then we’ll see more people choosing bicycles.

Q: The plan is to get more feeder lanes into King Street. Do you have a timeline for when that might happen?

A: No. We don’t have a timeline, but we’d like to see that done in the next few years to develop what you call a minimum grid of protected bike lanes, so people can feel comfortable … getting a lot of their short transportation done on bicycle.

Q: What do you say to the critics who say there’s still not that many bicyclists on it, and traffic is slower for cars on King Street? Do you hear that? Do people call in or email you?

A: No, they call the city. But I read letters to the editor in the Star-Advertiser, and now it’s settling down, there’s not so much. I think that’s an indication that people are realizing that it’s working.

The original letters were saying "This is a crash waiting to happen," and "This is the worst thing that the city could have done." But I think now people are realizing, no, that’s not true. It is very, very helpful to cyclists, and drivers are learning how to deal with it, and it’s not that hard to learn how to deal with it. You just have to drive the normal way. Before you make a turn, make sure that the way is clear, and then turn.

Q: Do you get feedback from the city?

A: They’re saying that the number of complaints has gone down drastically. There still are some complaints. The crux of what we have to say in relation to that is: It’s not only cars that have the right to use the road. Once you establish that premise — that everyone has a right to be safe on the road — then it naturally follows that we have to create facilities (like protected bike lanes) for them to be safe. …

Q: It just takes a while for some people to accept the premise?

A: Yes. We accept the fact that there are sidewalks now. That takes between 12 and 24 feet on the street. But nobody’s out there saying that we should eliminate sidewalks. Protected bike lanes are like sidewalks for bicycles. …

Q: Where there is a protected bike lane, the bikes should be in that. If there isn’t one, should the bike be on the road? The sidewalk?

A: The law says that in a business district, bicyclists should not use the sidewalk. If it’s not a business district, bicyclists are allowed to use the sidewalk. … The police practice has been to enforce that (business district ban) only in Waikiki and downtown. So when we see others riding on, say, Beretania on the sidewalk, that’s technically illegal, but generally not enforced. … We understand that bicyclists are on the sidewalk because they are afraid to be on the street. So we take that as a sign that there should be more protected bike lanes, rather than condemning them for being on the sidewalk.

Q: One more question about the King Street Cycle Track: We shouldn’t be seeing skateboarders in the bike path, right? …

A: Skateboarders are not supposed to be in the path. Only bikes. The other part of the answer to your earlier question: If there’s no bike lane or no cycle track, then bicyclists are not supposed to be on the sidewalk in business districts, but they can be on the road. It’s a select number of people who are going to be willing to ride a bicycle on the road, because that requires you to act like a vehicle and mix with motorists. One of the things that we really stress is that when you see a bicyclist on the street, they have the right to use the full lane. I get honked at, yelled at and aggressively driven at, on a weekly basis, because I’m using the middle of the lane.

Q: What do you do?

A: I always try to take down the license plate, call the police, and have the police educate the driver. It’s legal for cyclists to ride in the middle of the lane when that lane is too narrow for a car and bike to travel safely side by side. It’s proven that if you ride on the right side on a small lane, chances are you’re going to be pushed by a car that’s trying to pass you. So it’s safer for the bicyclist to be in the middle of that lane. A vehicle coming behind you would have to wait and pass you on the left when it’s clear.

Q: That creates frustration for some drivers. So you have to constantly stress: Be careful, share the road. Bicyclists have to abide by the rules as well.

A: Yes. We know that some cyclists don’t follow the rules. Some of them don’t stop at stoplights. … Some of them ride on the wrong side of the road. So that’s one of our main goals, to educate those cyclists. We have free classes for adults and children. They’re on our website, hbl.org. The problem is that many of the cyclists that don’t abide the law aren’t going to come to our classes. So we have actually asked HPD to enforce the law against cyclists, because that’s the only way people learn. If they get a ticket, or they know it’s going to be enforced, then they might learn the rules and follow the rules.

Q: The same for motorists?

A: Yes. We’ve been supporting red-light camera enforcement for red-light runners. Because it’s a proven technology that actively catches people running red lights. It saves lives. Unless you have an enforcement mechanism for both motorists and bicyclists, the tendency is for people to be overly concerned about their own time, not about the safety of other users. …

Q: Honolulu has a high rate of pedestrian fatalities. What about for bicyclists?

A: Honolulu, from my perspective, is pretty safe for bicyclists who know how to ride in the street. That’s what we like to teach. If you ride with knowledge of the law, follow the laws and get to the point where you are comfortable riding in the middle of the lane, Hono-lulu can be very safe. …

The pedestrian statistics are a different story. There are far too many pedestrian fatalities. The police look at all of these as preventable. So do we.

Q: You’re spreading that message?

A: Yes. We participate in memorial walks and rides to honor the victims and to get it in the public consciousness: This person didn’t have to die. What can we do, as a driver, cyclist or pedestrian, to act more safely on the road? We’re trying to reach everyone, but frankly, the driver of the heavy and fast car is the one that inflicts the most damage. So we’re trying to get drivers to drive so defensively that even if a pedestrian or cyclist makes a mistake, that they shouldn’t have to pay for that mistake with their lives. …

Q: We had a poll that showed Oahu residents support public policy encouraging bike use, and even specifically approve of the King Street Cycle Track. But when the question got to whether they would actually use protected bike lanes, the yes responses plummeted. How do you get from general support for a bike-friendly city to actually getting people to ride bikes?

A: Those are great results. They don’t surprise me. When we give talks to people about walk-bike-drive, which is mainly aimed at getting drivers to drive safely around pedestrians and cyclists, I always ask the question, "How many of you wish at the end of the week that you could have driven more?" Nobody says yes. But when I ask, how many of you wish you could have had the opportunity to walk or bike more, three-quarters of the people raise their hands.

Q: What’s stopping them?

A: There are many things, but the primary thing is that they don’t perceive that it’s safe. So the King Street Cycle Track is one of the facilities that make it more likely that you are going to be safe …

We have free classes for beginner cyclists, Cycling 101. … We teach people to go on the cycle track. The Bike Shop is lending their rental bikes free for people who want to try it. You can borrow a bike and a helmet. We’ll even find someone to go with you.

So that’s the way: Provide the facility for people to do it, and the equipment for people to do it, with instruction and encouragement. And as we develop a grid of protected bike lanes throughout Honolulu, people will feel that they can get around safely and be willing to do that. …

Q: You do other group rides, too, right?

A: Yes, for every level, from beginner to experienced. We have 1,800 members. A lot of them commute by bike, but we also have recreational riders. … If you go to our website and look at the events and rides calendar, you’ll see that six days of the week there’s a ride put on by either our members or others. … Some people start out as non-riders and now they bike every day. They’re saving money on cars and gas, they’re getting exercise without having to try to get exercise …. They feel good about not polluting, being green. Plus, cycling is just inherently fun, gliding along. …

Q: Speaking of commuting, once the rail-transit system is built, will you be able to take your bike on the train?

A: Yes. … There’s also another thing coming called Bikeshare Hawaii. They’re looking at the possibility of 2,000 bikes in Honolulu, around the university, Waikiki and downtown. Two thousand bicycles in racks of 10 each, distributed a quarter- to a half-mile apart so that you’re always a quick walk from a Bikeshare bike and you can use it to go wherever you need to go. …

Q: How many people are commuting by bicycle now?

A: Actually, 2.4 percent Honolulu’s population from Hawaii Kai to Kalihi commutes to work by bicycle. Although that’s small, that’s the 11th best rate of commuting by bike in the whole country. … Even in Portland, Seattle and San Francisco, which have the highest rates in the country, it’s still only 4 to 6 percent. So there’s a long way to go to get where it’s ideal, like in Copenhagen and Amsterdam. It’s such a way of life that it’s more convenient and faster to get around by bike. … I think that if enough people had the chance to experience that kind of living situation, they would actually prefer it to what we have now.