Roundabout starts today, Open Railroad??

[shockwave rider]

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Originally posted by Kapoho Joe

quote:

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Originally posted by Chunkster

Thanks for posting this, Opihikao. The most interesting part for me was seeing Russell Ruderman try to calm the crowd when the organizers, Inouye and Ilagan, had apparently frozen him out of the process for political purposes. I'm finding more and more reasons to want our senator to be re-elected, and I never thought I'd say that.

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Yes it's fun to send an outsider to the capitol and really stick it to the establishment. Consensus however, is a key ingredient to getting things done legislatively speaking.

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By definition a representative from Puna is an outsider. The people who want Ilagan in Honolulu have their own agendas, which have nothing to do with serving Puna.

[2liveque]

Sometimes, it's just plain embarrassing to be a Punatic. I thought the state highways guy handled things well.

[BillyB]

Many years ago I knew a couple casually on the mainland and they had just had a baby. They were active socially and took the infant to ball games and parties, everyone made a fuss over the beautiful baby girl. One night they brought the baby into the emergency room with a raging fever. She had caught some bug normally harmless to adults. With no immune system yet developed the result was catastrophic. She suffered extensive brain damage and life long physical disability. Confined to a wheel chair she couldn't speak, but she could recognize you and smile, it broke your heart.
That was over forty years ago, I don't know if she is still alive, but I will never forget her.

I can only imagine the emotional hell they descended into feeling responsible for their child's ruined life.

[HereOnThePrimalEdge]

opihikao-
Thanks for posting the link to the roundabout meeting:
http://www.bigislandvideonews.com/2016/0...t-meeting/

I find it mind boggling that the DOT would host a meeting in part because:

There was also a video display station demonstrating how to drive through a roundabout, since this will be the first of its kind in East Hawaii.

Now, if the DOT understands there may be a learning curve involved for Puna drivers navigating not only a new roundabout, but an unusually designed roundabout at that - - WHY WOULD THEY OPEN IT IN 3 PHASES??!!?

Phase A
Phase B
Phase C

Just as drivers become accustomed to the traffic pattern, the DOT will change it. I realize the purpose behind the decision is to open the roundabout as soon as possible, but doing it over a period of several months with flow pattern changes doesn't seem to be the best method of reducing accidents. If that was the point of the project.

"How we spend our days is, of course, how we spend our lives." -Annie Dillard

[hotinhawaii]

WHY WOULD THEY OPEN IT IN 3 PHASES??!!?
If you look at the three phase diagrams, you will see that they need to do construction on the sections that are currently being driven on. In order to tie the new roundabout into the existing road and still allow access to everything, the traffic needs to be moved around. For example, the entrance and exits to Malama Marketplace need to be repaved. To do this, traffic must be moved somewhere else.

[HereOnThePrimalEdge]

In order to tie the new roundabout into the existing road and still allow access to everything, the traffic needs to be moved around.

With only one way into lower Puna, and one way out, I understand the existing traffic needs to be rerouted around the construction. As opening Railroad Ave to avoid the worksite is not an option according to the DOT.

My concern, is once people become accustomed to a certain traffic pattern, any further changes will surprise them:

* We had a stop sign installed at an intersection in HPP some years ago. It had a Stop Ahead sign 100 feet before the stop sign, and six months later I still saw people drive straight through without even slowing. Because they couldn't get used to the change.

* The junction of Pahoa Village Road and Highway 130 (near Long's) had three stop signs at the intersection for a time. Three stop signs for one stop. Just in case a driver missed seeing the first two signs? And it was still a dangerous intersection.

Now we are asking these same drivers to learn how to drive on a roundabout, relearn the traffic pattern a few weeks later, then again for the final, final, incarnation.

Is there a better way to accomplish this? Honestly, I haven't studied the Phase A,B&C maps to see. At this stage of the game, we're going to get what they give us.

NOTE: I recently visited a city on the mainland that had a roundabout nearly every mile or two. Some on residential streets, and some at busy highway intersections. I had no trouble driving on any of them, and I thought they worked well. But there was also no place in the entire city of 120,000 where the highway department felt they needed to place three stop signs at a single place to stop, just to be sure their drivers realized, yes, we REALLY mean it, you have to stop here.

"How we spend our days is, of course, how we spend our lives." -Annie Dillard

[HereOnThePrimalEdge]

By the way, I would like to reiterate that the State DOT placed three stop signs at the junction of Pahoa Village Road and Highway 130 in an attempt to get Puna drivers to not drive their cars into other cars on the highway at that location. That is what they think of us. That we require three stop signs, where none of them are obstructed by a tree or a sharp curve or other visual impediment in the driver's line of sight to get us to stop at that intersection.

Has anyone ever seen this anywhere else on planet earth?

And yet, the people who indicate they full well know we need at least three stop signs where normally one will do, design a roundabout with a three phase implementation for maximum confusion. I look forward to dozens of warning, caution, and other signs of explanation to read as Puna drivers multitask their way through on opening day. And the next opening day. And the final opening day.

"How we spend our days is, of course, how we spend our lives." -Annie Dillard

[TomK]

As long as there is a sign a couple of hundred yards before saying "Warning, signs ahead!" then I see no problem. Or perhaps "If you see six stop signs ahead, stop driving"

Always thought a sign like this would be so great for Puna:

http://goo.gl/KkLGEF

[oink]

Things could be worse! For your entertainment here is one of my local intersections. Bear in mind this is a major improvement over what it used to be befor they made it a circle, plus the blocked off one street and made it a dead end to simplify it. It's aptly named Confusion Corner: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xj4-HTMWqwc

Edited for an e and to add that there was an "On The Road" episode on the original corner but I couldn't find it.


Pua`a
S. FL
Big Islander to be.

[freespirit]

This is what my fear is about the roundabout in the busy part of the day well really any part of the day.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uYVcdFWErQw&nohtml5=False