John Wendell et al~

Last week I wrote an e-mail to Aaron Hebshi ("One Less Car", CM, & Chairperson UHMBC) ~ it was a simple acknowledgement of Aaron's good work in helping to make bicycling a safer, and more popular, endeavor here in Honolulu ~ and in that message I told Aaron that we must direct our energies to all three projects he listed, the Waialae Ave. bikeway, McCully St., and Young St. bikeways with Young St. being my focus ~ however, the number of unsafe (for bicycling) streets, highways, byways, and thoroughfares runs off the page (Kapahulu, Ala Wai, Ala Moana, Nimitz, Wilder, King St., Beretania, Kam Hwy. N. Shore, Kam Waianae, and on and on and on) ~ once again I question the logic and justness in knowing that Portland, Oregon is rated the #1 bike-friendly city in the country ~ here is a city that is underwater 1/2 the year whilst here in our own beloved Honolulu, we have sunny skies 365 daze a year! ~ what is up with this?!...

Actually, this is a rhetorical question I've posed 'cuz I know, and you know, the answer ~ Honolulu, and all of Hawai'i, is a "car culture", a car mentality ~ I anguish each time I see people jump in their car, right here in my 'hood of Manoa, and drive the 2 blocks to Safeway ~ I am troubled as I sit at a bus-stop, with my bicycle, and do my ongoing, perfunctory random-survey of clusters of 20 cars passing by and keep coming up with an average of 15 of those 20 with a single driver and no one else ~ I am saddened to see the streets becoming more and more log-jammed with cars, with nowhere really to drive, the sick-air, and the "road-rage" that keeps building ~ I am quite nervous to see more and more petite Asian mothers behind the wheels of new, gas-guzzlin' SUV's, barely able to see over the steering wheel, windows rolled-up, radio on, A/C blowin', one hand on the wheel an t'other holding a cell-phone to her ear as she blows by me on my bicycle, brushing my pant-leg as she pushes me and my bicycle into the gutter; and I chasing her down at the next stop-light to question her driver-awareness and she ignoring me ~ and I am stunned that the obesity rate here in Hawai'i has climbed to well over 38%, and that it could be curbed if people would simply leave their cars in the garage (just 2 days a week) and begin riding their bicycles and exercising more ~ damn, it's done in other cities in the world, and very successfully...

And so my message to Aaron, as it turned out, has stimulated alot of rhetoric ~ and by reading all of your views on Young St., I have rediscovered my voice ~ I particulary applaud Jim Carlson and John Wendell's very firm stance while at the same time appreciating John Goody's positive, yet somewhat adulatory posture  ~ and I am reminded of the Young St. Project meeting at the First Chinese Church of Chirst, and during the Q&A afterwards, the young dude in the very back, fit and healthy, a bicyclist asking innocenctly enough, why can't Young St. be a "dedicated" bikeway without any cars! ~ and I think back to 5 yrs. ago when I went into Jeremy Harris' office, with Cheryl Soon in attendance, and asked for the very same thing ~ and 5 yrs. later I see my Young St. vision having been compromised 100 times from its original conceptual design ~ how can I give up all of my own, and other's hard-work and effort, to turn Young St . into something uniquely special and different ~ how can I, we, ignore the wonderful, visionary work done by Tom Papandrew as he went door-to-door, up and down Young St., talking to residents and business owners, and as he drove up and down and filmed video and recorded "difficult" spots along this boulevard, and then went to the drawing board to conceive several different design plans to both beautify and to "calm" Young St. and make it a bicyclist's "safe-harbor" (all of them tossed aside)?!... 

The present design plan does nothing more than to give us some painted bike-lanes ~ no center-meridian, no calming devices at intersections, no one-way traffic, no "restricted usage" to residents and patrons of busnesses only (and certainly not as a car thoroughfare) ~ I want, and have always wanted, Young St. to be "bicyclists first and motorists second" ('cuz the damn motorists have got their Beretania and King Sts. with 4 & 5 wide-open lanes going one-way ~ the present design-plan does not bring-in my original vision of a "Greenway" with more trees and plants nor does it entertain the "burying" of overhead, eyesore, electrical and phone lines to returning Young St. to a people-friendly and family-neighborhood of earlier times...

John Wendell makes it very clear that this design plan is basically unsafe and is a travesty ~ I really don't want to "suck-up" to anyone any longer ~ I really want to have Young St. be a statement, a reminder that in 1897, the first "paved" roadways were a result of the outcry of bicyclists who were tired of falling into potholes and thrown by rocks and erosions in dirt roads ~ it was us who first claimed the smooth-running of our bicycle tires over a paved-highway and not the automobile! ~ it's very important to remember this and to reclaim our legacy and stop kowtowing to the "altar of the automobile" ~ this will take numbers and a collective voice from the community ~ I have been reminded that I don't want just a litle bit at first, "table-scraps" ~ I want the whole enchilada!...

Yi Ge Xin ~ Edward/ Mo'PoB (More People on Bikes) ~ One Less Car ~                

----- Original Message -----
From: "John P. Wendell"
Date: Mon, 10 May 2004 16:21:50 -1000
To: "'John Goody'" ,"'Devin Oihi'" ,"'Jeff McNeill'" ,"'Aaron Joseph Hebshi'"
Subject: RE: Making Honolulu bike-friendly ~ you are the Man...

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