Hawaii Bicycling League

King St PBL is turning 4! We’re celebrating with a cleanup & cake!

King St Birthday Clean Up Party!
Tuesday, December 4th
4:00 PM – 6:00 PM
Corner of Keeamoku & King

RSVP online or on Facebook

The King St Protected Bike Lane turns the big 4 on December 4th! To celebrate we’re having a volunteer clean up to get it looking as beautiful as it should be! Join us Tuesday December 4th 4:00pm for the King Street Protected Bike Lane clean up. The King St PBL provides a safe way for cyclists to travel in a busy part of Honolulu. We will be working to repair the curbing and delineators. Bring some gloves and come join HBL in the clean up! And we’ll cap the clean up party off with some celebratory cake.

Brief history and important life events: On December 4th, 2014 the King Street Cycletrack opened with a fittingly grand ceremony – Mayor Kirk Caldwell cut the ribbon and led the 500+ celebratory group on the inaugural ride. This was the first protected bike lane in Hawaii – it had a curb and delineators separating bicycle traffic from car traffic. It created a safe biking environment for a 2-mile stretch from Alapai St (on the edge of Downtown) to Isenberg St (not far from UH Manoa). The King St Protected Bike Lane (following the national trend, we moved from the term “cycletrack” to “protected bike lane”) was immediately popular with a big increase in people cycling on the street. The next major event was the conversion of the King St PBL into a two-way bikeway with special bike signals, which occurred in May 2015 (Bike Month!). While the popularity of King St PBL was immediately evident, the City Department of Transportation Services’ robust data collection showed the level of its success – by 2016, bicycle ridership numbers had increase by an average 94% and people riding on sidewalks had decreased from 67% before to only 5% after. King Street has seen a steady increase in ridership since then with the opening of McCully St bike lanes in January 2017 and South St Protected Bike Lane in May 2017, providing the first two mauka/makai connections, and the launch of the Biki public bikeshare system in July 2017 providing 1000 bikes across 100 stations.

 

November 2018 Advocacy Happenings – Get Involved!

November has some big advocacy items happening -Walk Bike Vote 11/6, Bike Plan Update meeting 11/14, Primary Urban Center Plan meeting 11/7, Safe Passing 3 Foot law implementation campaign, Open Streets program, and Kipapa safety improvements moving to implementation.

Walk Bike Vote 11/6

Election Day is 11/6. Before you vote, read your candidates Walking and Bicycling Candidate Questionnaire to find out where they stand on important bicycle and pedestrian issues. We asked Governor, State Senate and House, and Honolulu City Council candidates where they stand on building a network of bikeways, prioritizing Complete Streets projects, embracing Vision Zero, and other important issues. Complete info at: HBL.org/WalkBikeVote

O’ahu Bike Plan Final Meeting 11/14

The City is holding the final public meeting on O’ahu Bike Plan Update November 14th Wednesday 6:00pm at Neal Blaisdell Center, Hawaii Suite. This is a our twice a decade chance to make sure the O’ahu Bike Plan has everything we need in it to make O’ahu bicycle-friendly for everyone. Please come out to have your voice heard and help shape a plan that will guide us to a bicycle paradise. Complete info at: HBL.org/OahuBikePlanFinalMeeting

Primary Urban Center Plan 11/7

The Primary Urban Center Development Plan guides the development and public investments for the area from Pearl City to Kāhala – literally shaping our community – let’s make sure it’s a bicycle-friendly and bicycle-oriented community! The City is holding a public meeting on it November 7th Wednesday 6:30pm at McKinley High School’s Hirata Hall (1039 King St). Please come out to get involved in shaping a bicycle friendly future for Honolulu. Complete info at: www.pucdp.com

Safe Passing 3 Foot Implementation

The Safe Passing 3 Foot law (HB2215) came into law July 1st 2018. Now we need to educate and build awareness. We’re seeking your help! We are asking for your involvement in helping us develop a multi-faceted campaign to build awareness about the law and it’s importance, to include PSAs, educational materials and graphics, bumper/bike stickers, police outreach, and other items. Please respond to daniel@hbl.org to step forward to help us.

Open Streets Program

Open Streets (or ciclovias) are events that close some of our streets to cars to allow people to walk, bike, run, rollerblade, skateboard, scouter, and enjoy. Open Streets are changing cities across the country – getting people biking/walking/moving natural. We are forming a group to put together a solid plan on how we can make this happen here. Please respond to daniel@hbl.org to help.

Kipapa Safety Improvements

HDOT is nearing implementation of the Kamehameha Hwy safety improvements through Kipapa Gulch, which will include shoulders and median to create a safer highway for everyone. Big shout-out to the Mililani and Central Oahu advocates that showed up at meeting after meeting to demonstrated the community support for this project.

Join the Bike Advocacy Email – get the latest

If you’re still reading this, you should definitely be on the Bike Advocacy Team email list. This email goes out ~2 times a month and gives you latest on advocacy happenings and how you can get involved. Change takes a community – thank you for being involved, together we’re making Hawaii more bicycle friendly everyday. Sign up: HBL.org/AdvocacyTeam

O’ahu Bike Plan Update – Final Meeting 11/14

O’ahu Bike Plan Update

The O’ahu Bike Plan guides the development of a connected, safe bikeway network all over O’ahu. It is being updated for the first time since 2012. This is a crucial opportunity to make sure the plan has everything in it to guide us to a truly bicycle friendly O’ahu. Click here to go to the City’s official O’ahu Bike Plan Update website.

Get Involved – Final Public Meeting

 Nov 14 (Wed) 6:00pm

@ Blaisdell Center (777 Ward Ave), Hawaii Suite

The City Department of Transportation Services will be holding it’s final public for the O’ahu Bike Plan Update November 14th Wednesday 6:00-8:00pm at the Neal Blaisdell Center, Hawaii Suite. A series of public meetings were held in January and now the City is ready to present the draft bikeway network. Please come to make sure the Oahu Bike Plan has everything we need in it to make O’ahu bicycle-friendly for everyone.

 

Why the O’ahu Bike Plan is Important

Envision O’ahu with a network of bikeways that get you everywhere you need to go. At its core, this is the point of the O’ahu Bike Plan – to provide a master plan for a network bikeways to get people (from keiki to kupuna) all over O’ahu to the places they need to go. To achieve this objective, the O’ahu Bike Plan provides a prioritized list of projects to be implemented with the repaving of streets or through separately funded projects. Click here to submit comments online.

3 Feet is the Law! Now, help us implement!

3 Feet is the Law – Time to Implement

With the passage of Act 47, the Safe Passing 3 Foot law became Hawaii law. The new law was the result of a tremendous advocacy effort, now to the hard part – implementation. We are asking for your involvement in helping us develop a multi-faceted campaign to build awareness about the law and it’s importance, to include PSAs, educational materials and graphics, bumper/bike stickers, police outreach, and other items. Please respond to daniel@hbl.org to step forward to help us.

What is the Safe Passing law?

The Safe Passing 3 Foot law requires that motorists provide a minimum of 3 feet of separation when passing a bicyclist. The Safe Passing 3 Foot law amended the existing Hawaii Revised Statutes 291c-43 – which already required safe passing – to state specifically that 3 feet is the minimum safe passing distance when a motorist overtakes or passes a bicyclist. Click here for more details on why it’s important.

Implementation Campaign & Your Help

The point of the Safe Passing 3 Foot Law is to change behavior and to accomplish this we need a LOT of education and some enforcement. Our plan is to develop a multi-faceted campaign:

  • PSAs (both radio and TV)
  • educational materials & graphics (for social media, print, website)
  • bumper/bike stickers
  • t-shirts and other apparel that can spread the message
  • police outreach/engagement
  • signage
  • any other thoughts?

If you can help with any of these, we need you! Please contact daniel@hbl.org to get involved! 

 

(update) Kipapa Gulch safety improvements to move forward!

Update 10/23/18

Support Needed 10/24 7:30pm

We’re almost there! Hawaii DOT plans to implement (see below 6/15/18 update). But the Mililani Neighborhood Board has a resolution to ask them to STOP. Please come (again!) this Wednesday 10/24 7:30pm at Mililani Waena Elementary (95-502 Kipapa Dr) to support. 
The 35+ people we brought out to each of the previous meetings had a giant impact in making it clear to the Neighborhood Board and HDOT that many in the community support this. Please come out again so we can remind the NB of all the support and convince them to stop this negative resolution. 

Mililani/Waipio Neighborhood Board

Wednesday, October 24 7:30pm

@ Mililani Waena Elementary, 95-502 Kipapa Dr

Update 6/15/18

Kamehama Hwy Safety Improvements Approved!

On June 14th, HDOT announced that they are moving forward with safety improvements to Kamehameha Highway! The safety improvements will create consistent minimum 4ft width shoulders and a safety median on Kamehameha Hwy between the Roosevelt Bridge and Lanikuhana Avenue. As part of the planning, HDOT conducted a coned traffic study to study any possible traffic impacts from the safety improvements. The results showed no to minimal impact on traffic flow. HDOT also conducted an analysis of traffic crashes and injuries that showed that head-on collisions are a major issue on Kamehameha Hwy between the Roosevelt Bridge and Lanikuhana Avenue and that the safety improvements would directly address this issue.

Click here to read a Star Advertiser article on the HDOT Kamehameha Hwy safety improvements project. 

Click here to view HDOT’s presentation to the Mililani Neighborhood Boar March 28th.

Thank you to over 50 people that came out the Mililani Neighborhood Board to speak in support of the safety improvements – the strong showing demonstrated the need and community support for these crucial safety improvements through Kipapa Gulch.

Stay Involved

While it’s the Kamehameha Hwy safety improvements aren’t on the agenda, they will undoubtedly be discussed at the next Mililani Neighborhood Board 6/27 7:30pm. Please come to out to make sure we have supportive voices present in the conversation. If you can make it, please contact Daniel@hbl.org.

Making a Safer Kamehameha Hwy!

Summary: The Hawaii Department of Transportation is planning to create continuous minimum 4 foot shoulders and a safety median on Kamehameha Hwy through Kipapa Gulch. This would create a safer bike connection between Mililani and Waipio and make the highway dramatically safer for everyone (read more below).

More details on the proposal: 

  • HDOT is proposing safety improvements to Kamehameha Hwy between Ka Uka Blvd and Lanikuhana St. These include:
    • create continuous minimum 4 foot shoulders, wider where possible
    • create a 6-foot median up the Mililani side of the gulch to improve driver safety
    • maintain a 6-foot median up the Waipio side of the gulch for driver safety
  • The change will be implemented through re-striping the highway, so it’ll be relatively inexpensive and fast.
  • On the Waipio side, the proposal is to adjust the median to provide the shoulders, while maintaining a 6 foot median for driver safety.
  • On the Mililani side, the proposal is to eliminate the “climbing lane” for 0.9 miles.

*HDOT is currently upgrading the Roosevelt Bridge (at the bottom of Kipapa Gulch) and will be installing 6 foot shoulders. This bridge work is the impetus for HDOT considering options to have shoulders continuously linking Mililani to Waipio. 

How will this address safety for all road users: This is a safety improvement project that will make this section of Kamehameha Highway safer for everyone – those walking, biking, and driving.

  • Shoulders will dramatically improve safety for those biking and walking.
  • Shoulders will also improve safety for those driving – among the safety benefits for drivers is that shoulders provide “recovery area” if a driver exits the lane they have space to safely recover.
  • The 6-foot median will improve safety for drivers (HDOT has said that safety records show that the Waipio side of the gulch which has a median has a better safety record than the Mililani side which doesn’t have a median).

How will this impact traffic: HDOT’s coned traffic study mimicked removal of the “climbing lane” over the week of April 2nd. HDOT’s analysis of the coned traffic study determined there was no to minimal impact on traffic flow. In addition to not negatively impacting traffic flow, there should be a safety benefit for everyone on the highway by reducing speeding motorists.

Safety First: Kamehameha Hwy is the only biking and walking option to get between Mililani and Waipio, so making it safe for those walking and biking must be the first priority. The improvements will also make the highway significantly safer for those driving.

Supporters at the January Mililani meeting.

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3442 Waialae Avenue, Suite 1
Honolulu, Hawaii 96816
Telephone: 808-735-5756
bicycle@hbl.org

HBL’s Mission:

To enable more people to ride bicycles for health, recreation, and transportation through advocacy, education, and events.