The city is setting aside about a dozen parking stalls along the South King Street cycle track for the exclusive use of those with disability parking permits.
The Department of Transportation Services agreed to the change after hearing from advocates who said the design and configuration of street parking next to the track posed a problem for motorists who use wheelchairs or other devices to get around, said Michael Formby, Transportation Services director.
A prototype disabled-parking stall was put in place in front of Thomas Square several weeks ago, and between 11 and 13 are planned for the 2-mile stretch of the track from Alapai to Isenberg streets, Formby said. That’s about one stall every major city block.
It takes about $500 to modify a parking stall to make a stall disabled-parking only, mostly in the cost of blue paint, a sign and removal of berms fronting the stall, he said.
Officials at the Department of Transportation Services have known about the accessibility concerns since before the track opened in December, Formby said. To help address the problem, asphalt berms that separate the track from parking stalls were placed 8 feet apart in areas nearest to major intersections (where Americans With Disabilities Act curb ramps tend to be) to accommodate wheelchairs and other wheeled vehicles, he said.
Later, officials with the Hawaii Disability Rights Center heard additional complaints — one from a person who uses a wheelchair and another from a merchant along the track — about the berms impeding access. The center then approached the city for additional help, said Louis Erteschik, the nonprofit’s executive director.
"Unless you go up there and look at it, it’s not as obvious and it’s hard to explain," Erteschik said. "But then when you get up there and you look at the big berms there, you realize you can’t park and get your wheelchair out."
Erteschik praised Formby and his department for being responsive and addressing the issues immediately. "Once it was pointed out, the city kind of said, ‘Oh yeah, you’re right.’"
Formby said the city already knew when the track opened that it would "need to provide parking stalls with fewer asphalt berms so people unloading wheelchairs or people that have crutches or walking devices would be able to get to the sidewalks."
The King Street protected bicycle track itself is considered a two-year pilot project, although Formby, Mayor Kirk Caldwell and other city officials are already discussing other parts of the island where bike-only lanes could be utilized.
Future cycle tracks will likely not use asphalt berms, but instead employ vertical delineators — those plastic, collapsible sticks now often used to separate lanes, Formby said.
One good candidate for a future track is South Street, between Ala Moana Boulevard and the King Street-Kapiolani Boulevard intersection, Formby said. A South Street track would allow for a bike-friendly path stretching from the Nimitz Highway-Ala Moana Boulevard corridor to the university area, Formby said.
