Five years ago, when the City Council adopted a Complete Streets ordinance, it joined an emerging nationwide movement. But the idea of underscoring safe multimodal travel in community design is not new to Oahu.
Before World War II, most communities in the United States were designed with essential goods and services available in a compact walkable area. The automobile changed that, spawning sprawling, low-density developments and large, high-volume roadways.
“We can still see signs of the dense, more connected street networks of the pre-WWII era in places like Chinatown and Kaimuki,” said Mike Packard, the city’s Complete Streets administrator. The Washington, D.C.-area native is tasked with guiding improvements that ease neighborhood navigation and enhance a sense of place.
“Complete Streets is an approach to planning and designing streets to be comfortable for users of all ages and abilities, whether traveling by foot, bus, car, bicycle or any other mode,” Packard said. “It’s about designing our public right-of-ways to accommodate people rather than prioritizing vehicular movement. The people we are designing for are those who do not feel comfortable weaving through traffic on a bicycle — we are looking to make everyone from children to kupuna feel safe and confident to walk and ride on Honolulu’s streets.”
Growing up in Arlington, Va., Packard walked and biked everywhere. After graduating from Virginia Tech with a civil engineering degree, he lived in the D.C. area — near a Metrorail station, yet often biked 14 miles to work. Upon a move to Chicago, he sold his car. Eight years after landing on Oahu, Packard is still bicycling.
He was tapped for the new Complete Streets post at Honolulu Hale last year, after working in the private sector for 15 years.
“I really take the idea of being a public servant to heart, and consider it my responsibility to ensure decisions are based on the needs of the underserved and community as a whole, not just a vocal minority. I love Hawaii and have a passion to help foster Oahu into a future that builds on what makes us special, and that is the beauty of the place and the aloha of the people.”
Question: When the city’s Complete Street Design Manual was released in September, Mayor Kirk Caldwell said its policy and principles would help guide the repaving, reconstruction and building new streets and roads. How so?
Answer: The manual represents the first significant update to our street design standards since 1976. … The Complete Streets program was established in 2016 to implement the recommendations in the manual and look at opportunities associated with projects that impact how people get around.
Planned repaving projects … present an opportunity to implement near-term multimodal changes throughout Oahu. Many pedestrian and bicycle safety modifications can be done through a change in pavement markings, thereby adding no cost to planned repaving projects.
We are coordinating with all departments to identify upcoming projects that present an opportunity to make incremental improvements to make streets more “complete.”
An example of this is the community-led effort is a recent roadway re-sizing along Kamehameha IV Road in Kalihi. This project resulted in a roadway that better delineated vehicular movements while providing dedicated space for cyclists to ride and a shorter distance for pedestrians to cross.
Several other roadways that have been redesigned with this roadway re-sizing concept include: Ala Napunani Street in Salt Lake, Kaonohi Street in Aiea, Lehua Avenue in Pearl City and Kupuohi Street in Village Park.
Elsewhere, we have been able to mark bike lanes by changing lane widths, for example, along Lusitana Street, Kupuna Loop and Alapai Street. The final pavement marking along these roads will be implemented over the next couple of months as a part of ongoing projects.
In addition, we are identifying roads that might require more substantial modifications, such as curb or sidewalk work, utilities, drainage or landscaping. … The first of the more substantial projects to be implemented through Complete Streets is in the Downtown/Chinatown area.
Q: How do bike paths figure into the Complete Streets vision?
A: The goal is to establish a robust bike network in Honolulu. The Bike Network 2020 Map is available on the Complete Streets website.
National research shows that areas with dedicated bicycle facilities improve economics and also improve the safety of pedestrians. A complete network of dedicated bicycle facilities enables people to ride between home, jobs and entertainment — providing an alternative to driving and helping to get bicycles off sidewalks. When cyclists are provided safe places to ride, the potential for conflicts with vehicles and pedestrians is greatly reduced.
Q: Does the vision include a system to allow cyclists to circle the island?
A: The city’s 2012 Oahu Bike Plan, which is planned to be updated this year, and the state’s 1999 Bike Plan Hawaii, both call for a network of bicycle facilities that encircle the island.
Q: What is Complete Streets doing to step up safety for pedestrians, especially older people?
A: The city is committed to making improvements to pedestrian safety. Funding was recently identified to complete a Pedestrian Master Plan for Oahu. This will work in tandem with the 2013 Hawaii Department of Transportation Statewide Pedestrian Master Plan and the update of the Oahu Bike Plan to inventory existing facilities and provide a proposed prioritization of capital improvement projects. …
Pedestrian improvements need to consider utilities, drainage and federal American with Disabilities Act guidelines. …
Pedestrian crossing timing is mandated by federal guidelines. However, the city does have flexibility to increase those times when necessary, such as in high volume or kupuna crossing areas.
Q: Are some neighborhoods better suited for Complete Streets concepts than others?
A: Complete Streets is not a one-size-fits-all type of application. What is appropriate in a large urban setting is very different from what you would see in a rural town like Haleiwa, or even in Waianae or on Tantalus. Speed, volume, topography and available right-of-ways all factor into what is needed to make a street “complete.”
Some neighborhoods have been built in a way that makes it hard to travel between places without a vehicle. In addition, older neighborhoods and those with significant elevation changes might not have all the amenities needed for a fully accessible street. Therefore, flat communities with multiple land uses and a connected roadway network are often more suited to these types of treatments. Examples on Oahu include Chinatown, Kaimuki, Kakaako and Kailua.
Q: What sort of feedback are you getting from events such as the Downtown/Chinatown symposium/expo held in mid-March?
A: The Downtown/Chinatown Complete Streets Implementation Program is the first in a series of projects in urban Honolulu. While both are unique neighborhoods … the comments noted echo those that we hear islandwide. They include: a need for adequate parking, concern for the safety of pedestrians, the need to slow vehicle travel through densely populated areas and concern about vehicle congestion during peak hours.
Q: How is rail integrated into the Complete Streets?
A: The rail project, and particularly the city Department of Planning and Permitting’s Transit Oriented Development (TOD) program, have the potential to … further the application of Complete Streets.
Areas like Kakaako and Ala Moana are already transforming, partly in response to TOD zoning changes that have enabled and incentivized development. The intent is to design these areas as dense, walkable communities where people don’t need to drive on a daily basis to meet their needs, or even own a vehicle.
This model of “smart growth” helps to alleviate some of the pressure on our roads, many of which are aging and limited in capacity. History and data have shown us that widening roads to accommodate traffic actually encourages people to drive, leads to more cars on the road, and therefore creates more traffic. On an island with limited land and funding for infrastructure, it is unsustainable to keep building more and bigger roads.
Downtown Chinatown CS Fact Sheet by Honolulu Star-Advertiser on Scribd
Bike Network 2020 by Honolulu Star-Advertiser on Scribd
