A Way To Eliminate the Traffic?
As the new year blooms in Waimea, we have been enjoying the most perfect weather in memory. High above us, in the alpine fields of sloping cinder and craggy basaltic outcrops, the snows of December glisten and shine as the warm Hawaiian sun sails slowly across the blue face of the sky. Here in the village we have been wearing our new outfits, unwrapped from their fancy boxes under the Christmas tree, and cheeks are rosy with the chilly morning air as the lovely Waimea wahine bustle into Starbucks for steaming coffee. It is just wonderful!
We have also been noticing that no one is complaining about the traffic delays at rush hour since the schools let out in late December. Speaking of traffic, have you noticed how incredibly courteous the Waimea drivers are as they wait patiently for our “main” traffic light to organize the competing flows of traffic? It is really the most impressive display of community aloha and pride of place that I have seen anywhere.
This sudden lack of congestion on the highway is of course due to the lack of school traffic, and as I was thinking about this the other day it occurred to me that if we were to just eliminate the schools a great deal of our traffic troubles would go away. My goodness, we really have lots of schools too! Just think about it … we have the Waimea Middle and Elementary Schools, the Kamehameha preschool, Parker School, HPA, Waimea Country, Small World Preschool and the Montessori schools to boot! Yikes! Maybe we can just eliminate a few of them, but eliminating all of them would be much better, don’t you think?
Well, this is obviously tongue-in-cheek, but it does illustrate a current of exclusivity that has been running dangerously close to the surface this past year or two. Do you recall the analogy promoted not long ago that when traffic swells we look for more roadway yet when a fat man swells … perhaps with too much good cheer … he should go on a diet? That struck me as the sort of feel-good but backward thinking we see so often in pop culture today. We certainly don’t want to drive people out of town in order to “lose weight” and lessen the congestion on the roads any more than we should consider eliminating the schools to achieve the same result, right?
We also may find ourselves waiting another 40 years for the pie-in-the-sky bypass roads that would relieve traffic while starving our retail community, which is all ready on life support. We should think about solving the problems we have within our existing roadways long before we place our hopes and dreams of a far-distant and super expensive alternative. For instance, what if the schools agreed to stagger their hours and we could get the resort employers to do the same? What if we had “contra” lanes like the other towns and villages in lovely settings across our great land?
An environmentalist friend pointed out to me that roadways are one of the most environmentally destructive things we create as a society. Could that be true? If it is, we better stop to think a bit harder about encouraging the State of Hawaii to create another big one across the sunlit pastures lying at the foot of the world’s tallest mountain, no?
For goodness sake, post an opinion 
Imua,
Bill Jardine
Filed under: Updates
It is never to late to have the schools persuaded …. and possibly even rewarded … they can encourage families to carpool by making bumper stickers that say something like “I carpool to school”. It would be a great marketing tool for the schools as well as a way for all the “green” families to boast that they are doing their part!
aloha bill,
you picked the topic waimea residents and big island visitors, once got stuck in traffic 3 miles out of waimea, like to talk about.
i tried the biking but to tell you the truth. it’s not just a physical challenge but can give you the creeps when the big trucks pass you. well, bypass seems to remain a dream.
how is the project of the wonderful walking and biking trail along the stream all the way into waimea getting together? any updates on it?
mahalo, pua
I think the overall topic of addressing the traffic concerns by focusing on the traffic, not the roads, is creative and worth exploring, especially as related to school traffic.
Getting resorts to stagger their work schedules I feel will have little chance of success. First is they already do this with day shifts starting a 6am, 7am, and 8 am. Secondly there is no incentive for them to disrupt a scheduling formula that works for them and accommodates their customer base.
But what about relocating the schools. Sounds overwhelming, but is it? HPA and Parker Scool aren’t going to move. Too much history and investment. Long term, Waimea Elementary and Intermediary Schools need serious upgrading. I know this is a pipe dream but what about exploring the possibility of approaching the state for replacement. The downtown real estate these campuses currently reside on would reap a tidy $ that would presumably go a long way to purchasing and promoting the developement of that bypass road in the vacinity of the Waimea Airport or the Hawaiian Home Lands out at the end of Kamamalu or Mana Rd. This last location would move the schools closer to the residential sector and Hamakua.
And all the smaller day care and pre-schools could with some financial assistance, move to less congested areas out towards Mana Road. This moves them out of downtown Waimea and closer to more populous residential areas.
The key to the success of a plan along these adeas is to convince the state that it would be less expensive to relocate these educational facilities than to develope new roads. But first is to convince the powers that be that there is a problem, second that they need to help the community, and thirdly that it is more important than everybody else in this state’s problems.
Just one man’s rambling.
Thanks for the great input, Rick.
I guess if the Waimea public school was located out near the Waimea golf course a whole lot of the traffic congestion would go away, since both sides of the highway would be carrying school traffic instead on just one side! You are a creative thinker
Imua, Bill