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Well that's awful. It should be 55 whereever possible, especially on the Keaau bypass where it's about the widest highway on the island. Never understood why it is 55 at the Humane Society, then opens up to a huge, modern highway and becomes a 45. Lowering the speed limits effectively would mean I, and everyone past Pahoa now live about 10 minutes further away from Hilo. I hope they plan to lower our property appraisals for tax purposes accordingly. Drunk, high, inattentive drivers are still going to kill you by swerving into your lane when you are both going 45 head on. Maybe they should lower the speed limit to 10 so they can hopefully make sure nobody ever gets injured in an accident again. Anyone intentionally driving 10 MPH under the speed limit, please pull over. Some of us have jobs, places to go, things to do.
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If you think you have traffic backups at the bottleneck now..just wait till all of that traffic in front of you is going 10 mph slower...
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How long is the bypass? Is it even 5 miles?
5 miles at 45mph = 6m40s.
5 miles at 55mph = 5m27s
Much ado about nothing.
If anybody wants to drive at a legal speed, then that's nobody else's business.
How about leaving home a minute or two earlier?
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The bypass is about one mile long.
James Weatherford, Ph.D.
15-1888 Hialoa
Hawaiian Paradise Park
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I "cruised" for that short distance and then turned and continued my trip to Kapoho...I can't say it really slowed me down that much, honestly. That intersection is so far away from the Keaau bottleneck it's not even relevant.
One mile. That's it. Just one mile. Thank you Dr. Weatherford.[:X]
Carrie
http://www.sapphiresoap.etsy.com
"Even the smallest person can change the course of the future..." Galadriel LOTR
Carrie Rojo
"Even the smallest person can change the course of the future..." Galadriel LOTR
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Man, what happened to "Hawaii time"? Is it THAT important to make the Hilo trek at 55 mph?
Is the 55-mph crowd suggesting that getting to Hilo a few minutes faster is more important than the kids safety at HAAS (or any school for that matter)? Should we also remove the 20 mph-school-zone signs in front of all our other schools so folks can get to their destinations more quickly? Gosh, I moved here to get away from that rush-rush-rush mentality. And frankly, I'm really surprised at this thread: silly me, I thought slowing down in front of schools was a no-brainer. (Full disclosure: I do a lot of work with HAAS and care very much about the safety of the kids, so this is personal.) I've seen too many close calls at the HAAS crossing NOT to be concerned.
My point: don't you think our traffic and "bottlenecks" are small sacrifices in the larger scheme of things? We're in Hawaii, remember? Stop and smell the roses and all that other good stuff? Oh yeah, gotta keep our kids safe too...
Tim
A superior man is modest in his speech, but exceeds in his actions--Confucius
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My earlier comment "that's awful" was in regards to lowering the speed limit to 45 from Pahoa to Keaau. Sorry if that wasn't clear. I don't think anyone is complaining about slowing down in school zones. Actually, if they are putting in a crosswalk for a school zone then why not make it 25 and put a sign with a flashing light. I'm upset about making the 9 or so miles of 55 from Pahoa to Keaau down to 45, which means many will begin driving it at 30. It is not a rush-rush mentality or a mainland attitude. I've done plenty of driving on Molokai, Lanai, Kauai, and the people there do not routinely drive 15MPH under the speed limit. Since our island is so large and things are many miles apart, there is even less reason to drive so slowly. Driving the posted speed limit is not rush-rush. It is common sense and common courtesy. Drive as slowly as you want, just pull off when someone is behind you and wants to drive the posted speed limit. Unfortunately that rarely happens and selfish people put put along for miles with long lines of cars behind them.
Getting back to the HAAS crosswalk, there is no school 4 months of the year, and only 2/3 of the days during the school year, with maybe an hour or two per day when someone could be using that crosswalk. The 45 doesn't bother me, but if the goal is increased safety for kids at the crosswalk it seems like an ineffective solution. That certainly argues for it being a 25MPH school zone at those times rather than 45 all the time, 95%+ of which there are no kids in the crosswalk. Better yet, if it is used so much, why not a crossing guard?
I don't think anyone in this thread is arguing for convenience over safety of children.
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Pog,I don't think it's possible to use cruise control driving regular hours because of merging traffic from intersections.When I drive very early or very late I have the opportunity to use it.I would have used 55 all the way but don't want to get a ticket.
Otherwise you are right it's not nice to drive 10 under if someone behind you.
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And just to clarify, I was also commenting on a reduction to 45 from Pahoa to Keaau when I spoke of the potential increased bottleneck backups. I'm not particularly opposed to the Pahoa-Keaau reduction, in fact it might make it easier to turn onto the main highway from side roads while we continue to hash out the traffic lights/roundabout/police direction issues <grin>. I don't find the existing backups to be that much of an issue. When I was on the mainland, it would take me an hour to drive 9 miles to work, so the bottleneck backup is a piece of cake in comparison.
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45 minutes from Silverlake to West Hollywood (a 12 mile trip) every morning. I'll take our bottleneck any day of the week! God I love living in Hawaii...
