Question: Auwe! It used to be drivers knew they could turn right on red, but now there are so many contrary signs drivers are confused and traffic is worse! It seems like drivers aren’t turning right on red even when it’s allowed. I’m tired of sitting behind cars that could go.
Answer: As your complaint indicates, it’s still generally legal to turn right at a red traffic light, after a complete stop, unless a sign prohibits such a turn, according to the state traffic code. Hawaii Revised Statutes 291C-32(a)(3)(B) also says that before turning, the driver stopped at the light must yield to pedestrians and other flowing traffic. Oahu’s Revised Ordinances of Honolulu addresses this topic, too, in Sec. 15-6.3, which says a sign is necessary to prohibit a right turn on a red light.
Such signs are posted at some Oahu intersections. Kokua Line still gets auwes about signs posted nearly two years ago along Ala Moana Boulevard in Waikiki and Kakaako; many motorists insist the changes worsened traffic. State Department of Transportation officials said at the time that “no right turn on red” signs were installed at a limited number of intersections with higher-than-average accident histories to improve safety for motorists, bicyclists and pedestrians.
Although the prohibition persists, the state DOT has announced a traffic update it says will improve traffic flow in at least one location, from Kamakee Street onto Ala Moana Boulevard. Next week a right-turn green arrow traffic signal will be installed at the intersection of Ala Moana Boulevard and Ala Moana Park Drive, on the southwest corner, a DOT news release said Thursday.
“The new light will activate in sequence with the left-turn green arrow traffic signal for eastbound Ala Moana Boulevard to turn onto Kamake‘e Street. This will allow drivers on Kamake‘e Street to turn right onto westbound Ala Moana Boulevard,” it said.
Installing the new signal will “require a roving, single- lane closure in either direction on Ala Moana Boulevard in the vicinity of Ala Moana Park Drive nightly from Oct. 22 through the morning of Oct. 24 from 8:30 p.m. to 4 a.m.,” the news release said.
Per HRS 291C-32(1)(B), “Vehicular traffic facing a green arrow signal, shown alone or in combination with another indication, may cautiously enter the intersection only to make the movement indicated by the arrow or to make other movement that is permitted by other indications shown at the same time. The vehicular traffic shall yield the right-of-way to pedestrians lawfully within an adjacent crosswalk and to other traffic lawfully using the intersection.”
As for your complaint that drivers aren’t turning right on red even when it’s allowed, we do hear that from other readers now and then, but we also hear the opposite — about drivers barreling through their right turns without stopping first at the red light.
Q: Some time ago you mentioned a group that could help with feral cats, but I don’t recall the name.
A: It’s CatFriends, a nonprofit organization that describes itself as “Oahu’s leader for information, education and humane management of community cats.” The website is hicatfriends.org.
Q: My son moved after graduating from college and didn’t update his voter registration. What do I do with his ballot packet, which was mailed to our address? He doesn’t live in Hawaii anymore.
A: The Honolulu Elections Division provides the following instructions for any Oahu resident who receives election mail for someone no longer living at that address: “Write on the mailer, without covering the name or address: ‘Return to sender, not at this address.’ Place it back in the mail. No postage is necessary.”
Write to Kokua Line at Honolulu Star-Advertiser, 500 Ala Moana Blvd., Suite 7-500, Honolulu, HI 96813; call 808-529-4773; or email kokualine@staradvertiser.com.
