Question: The buses in Waikiki are totally off schedule. There will be three or four of them following each other and then no more coming for a long time. This not only causes traffic jams, but makes the saying "If you miss a bus, another will be there in 20 minutes" false. It could be more like an hour. What’s the problem?

Answer: Oahu Transit Services says it was not able to find any major problems with bus delays in the Waikiki area during the general time period of your complaint (early August).

If you want to pursue this, call OTS’ Customer Service Office at 848-4500 or go online at www.thebus.org, click on the customer comments button and fill out the online comment form.

You are asked to give specific information, such as the bus stop where you were waiting, date, time of day, direction of travel and bus route.

With those details, OTS would be able to check whether the bus you were on was late, as well as see if there were any traffic situations that would have caused a delay, said spokeswoman Michelle Kennedy.

Slow traffic is usually the reason two buses for the same route would arrive at the same time, she said. The trailing bus simply catches up with the lead bus.

"Another related situation involves different bus routes that travel along the same streets, which may give the impression that the buses on a specific route are all arriving at the same time," Kennedy said. "In an area such as Waikiki where there is frequent bus service, this is an unavoidable situation, especially during the peak commuter traffic hours."

Question: What is the law about mo-peds on freeways? I was approached by persons asking for directions to Maunawili Falls from Wilder Avenue in Makiki. Are they allowed to travel on our highways, like the Pali and Likelike, to get there? They were told to stay off the H-1, H-2 and H-3 freeways by the mo-ped rental agency. But my daughter saw a mo-ped rider on the H-1 recently.

Answer: Because of their lack of speed, mo-peds are not allowed on any of the three freeways, according to the state Department of Transportation’s Motor Vehicle Safety Office.

They are not prohibited on Pali and Likelike highways, but their operators are advised to use alternate routes.

Because the top speed of a mo-ped is 30 mph on a level surface, "mo-ped riders would be wise to use an alternate route, because the mo-ped will be traveling much slower than the rest of the traffic when it is going uphill," said an official with the safety office.

MAHALO

To a kindhearted woman. I was on my nightly jog recently when I reached Pensacola Street and Wilder Avenue, a notorious corner that is very uneven because of tree growth. Due to exhaustion and lack of sleep, I wasn’t paying full attention, and a misstep turned really ugly when I went crashing face-first into the concrete. My hands were bleeding, and my right leg screamed in pain. For a few minutes I was in a pretty bad way, when out of nowhere a light-colored SUV stopped. Ignoring her own safety, a woman got out of her vehicle in the middle of night and reached out to me — helped me get up off the ground and even offered to call an ambulance. I was only a block away from home, so begged off her kind offers. Most who know me call me cynical, so let me say that my faith in humanity was put back on an even keel with this one act of selflessness. I want to say thank you to that kind stranger. — Lance Tanaka, Makiki

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