City should control streets of Waikiki

Watch out, Waikiki. You may soon be grappling with parking meter double trouble.

The Honolulu City Council is slated for a final decision on Wednesday regarding whether to increase the city’s parking fees. And, through a separate proposal in the works, a Waikiki-based group is expected to ask the city to give it responsibility for implementing future parking fees, permit schedules tied to freight and passenger deliveries, and other transportation rules in the bustling, tourist-filled area.

Authored by Mayor Kirk Caldwell, Bill 12 proposes doubling the hourly rate at Waikiki metered stalls in areas where it’s now $1.50 to $3; and in areas currently set at 75 cents, to $1.50. It also doubles designated metered parking hourly rates downtown to $3 between from 7 a.m. to 6 p.m., except Sundays and holidays. Plus, the measure adds an extra hour of daily metering in the morning and four hours at night in Waikiki — from the current 7 a.m. to 6 p.m., to 6 a.m. to 10 p.m.

The city Department of Transportation Services says parking meters across the island now generate a total of $4 million a year. With the bill’s higher rates, total revenue could double. The money would be deposited in the city’s highway fund to be used for bus and rail operations. (Funding for rail construction is now limited to the Oahu-only general excise tax surcharge and federal dollars.)

Islandwide, hourly meter rates have not increased since 2004, when most bumped up to $1.50 from $1. Given the 13-year plateau, the cash-strapped city’s call for more money at the meters is understandable, but an immediate doubling of the rate is too drastic. Motorists charged comparable rates in parking garages can often reduce them with various business validations. The move to stretch metered parking by five hours daily is reasonable.

But the push to create a transportation management association, which would be headed by a nonprofit, sends up red flags.

Certainly, the proposal’s supporters, such as Waikiki Improvement Association (WIA) President Rick Egged, who is well versed in the area’s parking issues and traffic patterns, could serve in a valued advisory role to Honolulu Hale. However, the city must be careful to not hand off its decision-making responsibility for traffic management of public streets to a private outfit.

In March, a group overseen by WIA backed the call for raising parking meter fees and added hours. Beyond that, the group was also looking at ideas including: converting about 300 free parking spaces to metered parking; issuing reduced-rate parking permits to Waikiki residents; and easing traffic backups by creating a paid permit system for commercial users with scheduled loading and unloading.

Converting free parking spaces to metered is a red flag in that it has the potential to undermine our public access rights tied to all Hawaii beaches, including those edging Waikiki. At what point would local families be priced out? They would be forking over nearly $20 to park for a full afternoon, if rates are doubled.

Perhaps the most concerning eyebrow-raiser: reduced-rate parking permits for Waikiki residents. There are ups and downs to residing in any Oahu neighborhood. For many Waikiki residents, parking is a perpetual headache. Even so, the traffic flow there is simply too heavy to reserve any residential parking on a public street.

Councilman Trevor Ozawa, who’s slated to introduce two bills on Wednesday that pave the way for the city to create the proposed transportation management association, said the concept would “allow the epicenter of our state’s tourism industry to operate more efficiently and effectively.” Why would the city want to give away any hands-on management in a cash-generating epicenter?

While Bill 12 can be defended as a reasonable hourly rate increase for parking in paradise, the City Council must be very careful to avoid creating a nonprofit that manages Waikiki’s transportation needs outside of city oversight. The city’s public officials must have the final say on public matters.