ITE guidelines would negate speed humps on Nani Kailua Drive

I live in the Kona Heights subdivision in Kailua-Kona, a neighborhood that has access to and from Queen Kaahumanu Highway via the only ingress/egress point for the subdivision: Nani Kailua Drive.

Perhaps Brad Main is unfamiliar with the Institute of Traffic Engineers Guidelines that the County of Hawaii, and all other counties in Hawaii, acknowledge in the County Code as the engineering standard to follow for consideration of speed hump installation. The County Code requires the director of the Department of Public Works to provide speed hump final approval. A lawsuit could be generated if speed humps are approved in an area that violates engineering standards.

I understand that Mr. Main originally wanted a speed hump directly in front of his home, but ITE criteria prohibit a speed hump in that location. Nani Kailua Drive is a designated collector road with the only access to Queen Kaahumanu Highway for four subdivisions and private residences. ITE standards require speed hump installation of road grades that are no greater than 8 percent; Nani Kailua Drive has several steep sections that are well over that 8 percent limitation.

Further guidelines prohibit speed hump installation where the road provides the only ingress/egress for emergency vehicles, because of impeding response times for fire and police vehicles and added misery for a person being transported in an ambulance.

Mr. Main has stated that he followed procedures to gain support from the majority of residents who live on Nani Kailua Drive. For the sake of argument, if a collector road is allowed to have speed humps, Nani Kailua Drive residents should also include all residents of cul de sacs that have to use Nani Kailua Drive for ingress/egress to their property. On that point of procedure, a collector road should include speed hump approval from the majority of all of the residents of the four subdivisions and private residences served by Nani Kailua Drive, the only ingress/egress road to Queen Kaahumanu Highway. There is no record of where, when and how Mr. Main conducted a traffic study, but it is likely that the volume of traffic using Nani Kailua Drive is well over the 3,000 vehicle daily maximum limit, as stated in ITE criteria.

Residences in the Kailua View Estates subdivision were built in the late 1980s and early 1990s; 1990s in the Kona Heights subdivision and residential construction has steadily continued in northerly, southerly and easterly directions throughout the area served by Nani Kailua Drive. There is already a level of traffic congestion at the intersection of Nani Kailua Drive and Queen Kaahumanu Highway. The addition of speed humps, which requires vehicles to slow to 15 to 20 mph to avoid damage, will increase the existing traffic congestion exponentially.

Mr. Main has stated that he has great concern for vehicles speeding on Nani Kailua Drive. I submit that the majority of vehicles are not speeding anywhere; the minority who choose to violate the law should not inconvenience that majority. Speeding is a law enforcement issue. I would encourage Mr. Main to put some energy into lobbying for more traffic enforcement on Nani Kailua Drive and the surrounding community. Our County tax dollars are better spent by enforcing traffic laws than by creating traffic problems.

Barbara Scott is a resident of Kailua-Kona.

Viewpoint articles are the opinion of the writer and not necessarily the opinion of West Hawaii Today.