It's hard to think like a commuter from my chair of immobility where I spend the day with my right leg in a cast. I'm one of those people who like to start the day early with a workout, hop on TheBus where I read The Honolulu Advertiser, and be the one to turn on the office lights in my unit at HMSA.
All of that is on hold now, and the only commuting I do is through my netbook, and through reports from my kids and my husband about life beyond our front door.
Still, I know I can write about Hawaii's traffic and roads and throw my .02 in the mix when it comes to auto accidents, early morning motorcycle spills, drunk driving convictions and pedestrian rage against drivers.
The story says, "The program calls for developing a comprehensive strategic prevention plan, expanding the Hawaii Epidemiological Profile for Substance Abuse Prevention and distributing funds to each of the four county mayor's offices to coordinate activities at the community level."
How much money will it cost to expand the profile for substance abuse prevention, as it relates to teenagers? What will it cost to develop a comprehensive strategic prevention plan?
This money needs to be put to work on a grassroots level. Fund more youth leader positions at City and County Parks and Recreation Summer Fun programs. Get teenagers involved in with the Meals on Wheels program. Fund busy fitness activities that leave young people satisfied and exhausted. Is there a park with a garage that can accommodate an auto shop? Can we get more teens working on our beaches, improving and learning about the environment? I'm thinking fresh air, working up a sweat, and not being holed up in an air-conditioned room building a Website.
Let's not take several thousands of dollars and ask a PR firm to come up with a catchy phrase, a pretty logo and a long menu of billable hours that amounts to no marked reduction in the loss of teenagers who drink and drive.
Keep teenagers busy in the fresh air to help improve their attitudes and their outlooks. Then send them off to college with a fresh perspective on what they can do to make the world a better place.
I know fellow blogger Rodney Lee touched on this subject a few weeks ago, but, I thought I'd approach it from a driver's point of view: A driver who loves to drive, likes getting behind the wheel, likes a smooth, uneventful ride without traffic jams, slow drivers in the fast lane, and without lead-footed aggressive drivers. I'm talking about eventually parking at a drive-in movie theater!
For a limited time, Aloha Stadium parking lot will be the setting for drive-in movies, beginning next month. What a great idea. I hope it catches on.
Drive-in movies were introduced in my home state, New Jersey. I remember the family piling into the black Ford Falcon station wagon with red interior with blankets and pillows to watch movies at the drive-in. It was summer time, and the kids could play on the playground, which was directly under the giant screen. When the movie started, everyone settled down with their snacks, the metal speaker boxes that rarely worked right, and mosquito coils. I wonder if we were all kind of woozy by the end of the coil?
According to this story, the drive-in movies at Aloha Stadium aren't going to be new runs to assure there is no competition to first-run movie houses, but they will be fairly recent releases that will appeal to the PG set and older. AND they'll be free!
I like the idea of driving the ohana to watch a movie from within one of my favorite comfort zones, the family van. No need to crack the window for a crackly speaker, radio waves transmit the sound. What a great way to set off a series of old rituals: washing and vacuuming the car, going out on a date to the drive-in movie, watching a wholesome show, being home at a reasonable hour.
Wait. I forgot about the kissing part.
Thanks for reading! I'm having emergency surgery Monday for my Achilles tendon and will be back on the blogs in a few days. Mahalo for your patience, and I always welcome your ideas.
We all need to get somewhere, let's get there safely!
What was your commute like today? How was traffic? How were the road conditions? Have you suggestions for improvements?
Whether you ride theBus or vanpool, drive solo or drop the kids off at school on your way to work, or ride a bicycle, moped or motorcycle, traffic is a big part of life in Hawaii.
The little picture is what you do to stay cool while behind the wheel.
We see it all the time: road rage, ran-through red lights, oblivious pedestrians. There are also those feel-good moments when drivers stop for pedestrians or wait calmly for the seniors to get safely up the curb.
Consider the alternative. It would be so inconvenient if a bad decision resulted in an accident. Not only does it affect a driver, it affects their family, their employer, and countless others who depend upon those involved, perhaps a pedestrian or another driver who was hit. REALLY inconvenient.
This blog is the place to vent or rave about your daily commute in Hawaii. This is the place where you can let us know if you see an accident, where the traffic is backed up like a stopped-up sewer line, what you think about the new freeway service the state is now providing.
While we certainly don't want you to comment online while driving, we would wager that there might be something you want to thumb into your iPhone or Blackberry once you arrive at your destination. We suspect Honolulu drivers have a lot on their minds.
Oahu's H-1 Freeway's east-bound stretch between the South Vineyard Boulevard off ramp to the Ward Avenue on ramp has been cited as the second worst in the nation when it comes to travel time at peak hours, according to the National Traffic Scorecard study by INRIX and mentioned today in a story by Honolulu Advertiser reporter Eloise Aguiar.
Tell me something I don't already know. Years ago when I worked at Kaiser Permanente's Moanalua Clinic on the midnight-to-8 a.m. shift running computer mainframes, I had to end my taxing work day with a drive to Makiki. And, no the traffic wasn't moving along by then. It was frustrating, and it was impossible to figure out an alternative route. There was no H-3 Hirano Tunnel, not that I'd want to drive home the long way.
Oahu has some very poorly planned on- and off-ramps. I remember the first time I drove from my house in Kahaluu to Hickam Air Force Base. It was morning rush hour, I was easing off the Likelike and onto the H-1 near the airport-viaduct exchange when I punched the gas to ease into the flow. Fortunately for me, the guy in front of me got on the shoulder because he saw me coming. I couldn't believe then and I still can't believe now that drivers STOP on on ramps to get on the freeway. That one by the University is another nutso bottleneck.
I don't know what it takes to be a traffic engineer in Honolulu or in Hawaii, but, maybe the guys who run these departments are teaching at the University of Hawaii, perpetuating old horse-and-buggy methods where speedier solutions are required.
I have a colleague who commutes via motorcycle from Mililani to our Keeaumoku Street offices at HMSA Center. When it's a Furlough Friday, Russell says the ride is pretty smooth and he can synchronize his trip to be red-light free most of the way to town.
My first boyfriend had a motorcycle, which he sold just before we started dating. My dad said he wouldn't let me get on it anyway, but it didn't mean I never had a conversation about motorcycles with boyfriend #1. He told me something that I have never forgotten. Maybe it's common knowledge to other people who have never ridden a motorcycle, but it was news to me. Have you ever noticed how a motorcyclist doesn't ride in the middle of the lane? That's because it's potentially an oil slick. Motorcyclists ride in the worn path of wheels, on either side of the darkened, oily middle of the road.
In today's Honolulu Advertiser is a story by Michael Tsai about traffic deaths in Hawaii. Tsai states that the number of traffic deaths in Hawaii rose slightly last year due to an increase in motorcycle-related fatalities. 2010 could possibily see that increasing trend continue, given yesterday there were two motorcycle-related traffic deaths on the Big Island. Let's hope not!
Honolulu Police Department's Major Thomas Nitta said that of Oahu's 17 motorcycle deaths in 2009, 14 were attributed to operator error, meaning speed, drugs, alcohol or lack of operating skills were factors.
Those of us who ride in cars, vans, SUVs and trucks need to be fully aware of who we are sharing the road with. Airbags can protect us from serious injuries most of the time, but what can a motorcyclist or bicyclist do when a dangerous situation arises? Stay alert, share the road, ease off the Type-A tendencies when behind the wheel. And if you hear a motorcycle, but don't see a motorcycle, look around a little bit more because they're probably not in the middle of the road.
Nothing inconveniences more people than a traffic accident.
Friends in social media suggested I discuss pedestrian safety for this blog. I certainly do touch on that subject quite a bit, and it often feels the words are released in the vast nothingness, without echo, without response, into a deep, black hole of the Internet.
But that's how it goes with pedestrian safety. A few years ago I worked on a pedestrian safety program with Hawaii state and county transportation department employees. We'd meet once a month with Honolulu Police Department representatives to get a rundown on stats, what worked and what didn't.
We would brainstorm ways we could keep pedestrians safe, using everything from small flashing lights to bright yellow bandanas to catch the attention of drivers. We emphasized that pedestrians only cross at crosswalks and HPD enforced jaywalking laws by writing tickets to those who crossed midblock.
It never felt like we were hitting the mark. We did outreach to seniors at health fairs, we joined forces with AARP, we appealed to legislators, the media, and to pedestrians and drivers, but there were always accidents and there were always people getting hit and getting killed.
Drivers, surrounded by tons of steel and glass, earn their driving licenses, which are a privilege to possess. A driver's license is responsibility, accountability, an acknowledgement of social compliance to obey laws designed to keep everyone safe.
Pedestrians, on the other hand, don't require a license to walk the streets. However, pedestrians must conduct themselves in a way that prevents their own and others' harm. I am reminded of an elderly woman who would step out on Maunakea Street, raise her arm and cause traffic to abruptly halt so she could cross. It was infuriating. It wasn't cute. It was irritating. I expected her to be roadkill, eventually.
What else isn't very cute about pedestrians? Passive aggressive behavior such as controlling traffic by slowly strolling across the street. How many teenagers walk uncharacteristically slow because you're sitting there waiting to turn or cross?
Pedestrian safety is a two-way street. We've got ourselves a new month, new year, new decade, a fresh start on new statistics. Imagine how well traffic would flow if we all behaved ourselves, whether we were behind the wheel or on foot?
Paula Gillingham Bender, has commuted to the University of Hawai'i on her bicycle, driven sports cars, trucks and a van. She takes TheBus to work so she doesn't have to troll for parking.
