Bicyclists traversing the Pensacola protected bicycle lane

Pensacola protected bicycle lane opens

News Release from City and County of Honolulu, Sept 25, 2020

HONOLULU – The City and County of Honolulu’s Department of Transportation Services announces the opening of the Pensacola protected two-way bicycle lane. This new bike lane runs in both mauka and makai directions on the Diamond Head side of Pensacola Street, between Wilder Avenue and Kapiʻolani Boulevard. The Pensacola bike lane connects to the King Street two-way protected bike lane, which takes bicyclists eastbound to Mōʻiliʻili or westbound to the Fasi Municipal Building and Honolulu’s Civic Center.

The Pensacola bike lane connects the dense Makiki neighborhood to essential jobs and services makai of the H1 freeway. Roughly 70% of the Makiki residents have one or no cars per household. This allows for safer opportunities for residents without personal motor vehicles to get to their destinations city-wide.

Providing safe, protected bike lanes will give commuters more options to travel, without having to worry about parking or traffic congestion. Creating a grid of bicycle lanes throughout Honolulu will help remove the dependence on personal motor vehicles on the roadways, which will help reduce traffic congestion, travel times, pedestrian and vehicle collisions, and greenhouse gas emissions. The bike lanes also connect the travel between bus stops, local businesses and future rail stations.

“We’re really excited. It’s about getting people out of their cars”, says Mayor Kirk Caldwell. “It’s about getting people in the sun. It’s about having people be healthy. It’s about becoming carbon neutral. It’s about making this a more livable city. Just one more ongoing effort of creating a grid of protected bike lanes in the City and County of Honolulu.”

With the installation of the first protected bike lane on King Street in 2014, there has been a 50% reduction in pedestrian-vehicle collisions. The King Street bike lane improved visibility for both bicyclists and pedestrians, removed bicyclists from riding on sidewalks and increased awareness for motor vehicle drivers. The success of the King Street bike lane pushed the installation of the South Street two-way protected bike lane that opened in 2017. The Ward Avenue protected bike lanes are currently in construction, along with multiple bikeways for Downtown Honolulu coming up in the future.

The Pensacola bike lane is part of the City’s commitment in creating Complete Streets to improve the safety of all roadway users. For more information on the Pensacola protected bike lane, please visit http://www.honolulu.gov/completestreets/urbancore.

Please check the link for the Pensacola Protected Bicycle Lane video:

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1UPRybnLV7Wb2rQr2qQhzmDKowrG72Xby/view

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King Street TheBus only lane coming soon  (One block from Hotel Street, LOL!)

Map of the King Street bus-only lane

HONOLULU – The City and County of Honolulu’s Department of Transportation Services will soon be formalizing a new bus-only lane on King Street. This bus-only lane will utilize the rightmost travel lane on the one-way King Street from Dillingham Boulevard, through downtown, and ending at Punchbowl Street.

As the state’s busiest bus corridor, King Street was chosen to formalize the bus-only lane. King Street’s right lane serves 36 different TheBus routes coming from the Leeward, Central, Windward and North Shore of Oahu. Reducing any delay from congestion on King Street will improve bus service and safety for these routes and riders, and reduce bus operation expenses.

“TheBusLane on King Street is another part of the City’s multimodal approach to Complete Streets” says Mayor Kirk Caldwell. “It’s about transportation equity for TheBus riders, all of whom are pedestrians before and after their ride. We want to move more people, not move more single-occupant cars. This dedicated bus lane is another example of providing extra benefits to people who choose to travel on transit.”

New signs and pavement markings including red paint will indicate that the right lane of King Street is for City buses only. Vehicles making right-hand turns will be allowed into the bus only lane to do so. No changes are being made to parking or loading zones.

Installation of the bus only lane is projected to take six to eight weeks (weather permitting), and is scheduled to start Monday, September 28th. The first phase of the project will end at Punchbowl Street. The second phase will reach Alapai Street with a future construction date. Travelers, please be aware of construction along King Street during this time.

For more information on the King Street bus-only lane, please visit http://www.honolulu.gov/completestreets/urbancore.

—PAU—

Meanwhile: Bus Routes 8 and 22 will be temporarily discontinued until further notice. This comes after a sharp decline in ridership for these routes due to the COVID-19 pandemic.