Don’t bog down bike lane plans

Honolulu’s bikeways seem to be evolving at a steady pace with the city administration leading the pack. So a push to involve the City Council at this point in the name of more transparency would instead add another layer of bureaucracy and slow down progress of the city’s bikeway system.

Bill 68, which would require more City Council scrutiny of some 700 miles of planned bikeways, was given first reading approval by the Council last week and heads to the Zoning and Planning Committee. Councilman Trevor Ozawa, who introduced the measure, says he supports bicycle lanes, but believes they should be better vetted by all segments of the community, including affected neighbors.

The bill would require that a city administration planning a new bikeway first go to the Council for approval of a public infrastructure map symbol. PIM symbols are required for major government facilities including corporation yards, desalination plants, fire or police stations, municipal golf courses and parks.

Currently, the Council has no official say over bikeways — and it should stay that way. Avenues already exist for the public to have its say on plans to make Honolulu more bike-friendly, including community meetings held by the city administration to gather input.

For instance, a Sept. 1 meeting at the Neal Blaisdell Center on the King Street Protected Bike Lane Project drew 200-plus people. Those numbers show there is great interest — so it does behoove administrators to robustly publicize hearings to attract a broader range of community members.

There is no doubt that public engagement is key as the city moves toward building a network of bike lanes in the urban core.

Already, public input has allowed for tweaks in the city’s South Street project, which is expected to be the first mauka-makai connector to the King Street cycle track. Along South Street, Waterfront Plaza is expected to maintain its loading zones and the plans call for maintaining the same number of vehicular lanes on the two-way block of South Street that connects with Ala Moana. Those were the result of listening to community concerns, and that connector is expected to be in place by year’s end.

These examples underscore the need for planners to listen to good ideas from the public — as well as the workability of the existing course, without detouring into more committee meetings, hearings and votes.

In testifying against Bill 68, bicycling advocate Natalie Iwasa pointed out there are more than 350 bicycle projects in the bike plan, which would lead to 350 separate resolutions subject to Council approvals for PIM designation. That seems like an unnecessary, prolonged exercise.

As Honolulu evolves into a bike-friendly city, the pushback from motorists used to owning the roads is not surprising. The city opened its first cycle track in December, exclusively for bicyclists, on a two-mile stretch of South King Street between Alapai and Isenberg streets. As expected, cyclists are thrilled; motorists, not so much.

The move, however, seeks to encourage the use of bicycles as a viable mode of transportation, without the carbon footprint. It’s all part of a greater plan to develop the urban core, allowing residents to ditch vehicles and instead use bicycles or simply walk, and this deserves support. If there was no or scant attempt to involve the community in shaping the city’s bikeways, Bill 68 would merit careful consideration. But as long as public engagement remains lively, the city should stay the course since community members have been — and continue to be — part of the process in creating Honolulu’s pedaling network.