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Aloha Liz,
While I very much like the idea of Railroad as a hike and bike alternative corridor, I have to wonder how effective allowing though cars with a 25 mph speed limit would be. There would either have to be serious speed bumps every 50 yards or continuous police enforcement to make people actually go that slow. What I have seen of law enforcement in HPP so far does not portend well for hopes of strict enforcement. I honestly don't think that many people would use the road if they knew they really couldn't go faster than 25. Just my opinion. I really like your ideas about village centers and community activism, though.
Lee, your idea is one that I have not heard before and it is very interesting. The only drawback I see is having a partially four-lane 130 as the only way out. If something were to block the newly four-laned 130 during an evacuation, it would be a mess. That might be the time for that gated, emergency only route across 15th.
Cheers,
Jerry
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I live on 13th in HPP. I wouldn’t mind seeing a new road go in. It would be very close if it goes down 15th and that still wouldn’t be so bad if the police would start ticketing loud exhaust systems and off road tires that make so much noise at hi-way speeds. If they can’t or won’t do something to cut down the noise pollution then I will be against any road through HPP. I rented on 28th and Paradise for a year and the noise from off road tires and loud exhaust systems made it unbearable. Even at night the noise from the same sources on 130 could and would keep one awake. I would also oppose any speed bumps because all of the stop and go from bump to bump cuts drastically into gas mileage.
Royall
What goes around comes around!
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The Shipman long range plan is to develop their Hilo side land as a resort development with a road going down to Kaloli Pt., but it is not to make this road a county road. They had no plans for a cross property road on their community presentation a few months ago. The Pahoa side lands have more landowners, so any land acquisition would be much more complicated. One solution to speed would be to leave the emergency cross road as one that never gets paved, but either speed bumps (I don't even know if they can be used on a county road??) or unpaving have their own costs.
Some limited access roads have open access roads that run parallel to them (picture a 4 lane sandwiched between two 1-2 lane roads) this allows less impact in road emergencies, but still has one route in natural emergencies. The county does have one emergency option for half of 130, going up Ainole up to 8th then over to 11. For all of Puna, there is no alternate for 11. Every route we have ends up at 11 (even if you go over Ihope to Stainback, you still have only 11 to exit).
Aloha, Carey
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As a property owner in HPP who plans to build in the next 12 months, I am totally against any new road running thru the park. I spent a month in HPP in November 06 and on 3 different occasions experienced cars and trucks on Makuu and Kaloli traveling at wildly wreckless speeds, endangering all who travel or live on those roads.
We are from the Bay Area and were attrached to HPP because of the quiet tranquility of most of the existing roads in the park.
We would like to see 130 expanded to 4 lanes and see how that helps any future problems.
We are committed to help fight this plan with as much time and effort as it takes.
Thanks
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Interesting, you are prepared to fight any plan you have not yet seen.
Assume the best and ask questions.
Punaweb moderator
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I've seen many accidents on 130 caused by people trying to enter across one lane of traffic and guessing wrong about on-coming traffic. I can not imagine how deadly 4 lanes would be. There are too many streets entering to put stop-lights. Too expensive and traffic would slow to a crawl. Not to mention that the residents that live or have property on 130 would probably feel just as outraged that THEIR piece of "Paradise" is being taken from them and that THEY are being asked to shoulder the burden AGAIN because no one else wants it in THEIR backyard. If anything (not a certainty here is it) is done, some people will be inconvenienced and not be happy campers.
I have no idea what a reasonable, affordable, acceptable, and functional solution is. But my gut and logic tells me that on an island prone to, earthquakes, tsunamis, volcanoes, and hurricanes (did I miss anything?), to have only one route, no matter how wide or good it is, to get people in and out of a rapidly growing area, is a disaster waiting to happen.
That opinion and $3 will get me a cup of coffee.
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The roads in HPP are a little frightening, and an invitation to reckless driving. Eventually, it might be advisable to put in some sort of traffic calming devices on Kaloli, Paradise and Makuu (sp?). These simply cannot be thoroughfares. Here in Southern California, some residential areas have "islands" in the road that one must drive around slowly to continue down the road. It would be nice to see that in HPP. Highway 30 is also a little scary, but I am not sure what the solution is. I think having more business and services closer in would help quite a bit. I don't see why there couldn't be a "village" in HPP with a bakery, a cafe, a store, a theatre...oh, wait...I saw that on another, more expensive island. Okay, I'm all better now!
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Building more roads WILL NOT alliviate any traffic problems. more roads = more cars = more traffic. just look around. Instead of bigger/more roads, we need a better public transportation system. One that is fast, cheap and convenient.
I fully agree that puna needs to be changed into more of a village. I hated driving to Hilo for almost everything. Granted, I was able to squeeze 'everything' into one day, but what a pain and waste of gas. HPP should set aside an area to be developed into a little downtown. think an atm, a post office (even one of those mini service ones), a laundry mat, a market, and maybe a few stores and restaurants (that deliver!) These things create a feeling of community and make more green sense. And alleviate traffic.
Now having said that, for emergency reasons, I agree that there needs to be alternative ways out of Puna. I like the idea of small streets that go to Hilo. Something that actually went to Hilo, but that people in a hurry wouldn't take. Hilo and Puna are beautiful enough that I enjoyed taking the smaller streets. This would make it so that nobody's property would be encroached on.
But if the solution is expanding the 130, maybe it could make the extra lane a carpool lane or a temporary like (like be the kea'au hs). Also, they could change the zoning along the 130 to allow for commercial zoning. This could add value to those properties (in case some families want to sell and buy something not on a freeway) and bring more businesses into Puna (think: jobs and local goods/services)
enough ranting for now. must go to bed.
aloha,
Stefanie
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btw, when I support rezoning the highway to commercial, I do NOT mean stripmalls. I'm thinking 1 business/lot or something that isn't an eyesore from the freeway. I hate strip malls. Malama Market did an ok job as far a looking nice, but I am annoyed that they separated all the stores, making it hard to walk around. And whoever designed the Orchidland one was either blind or cruel.
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The new shopping center in Pahoa is already creating traffic safety issues, due in large part to the design of its connection to 130. It also looks and feels somewhat like a strip mall, but nobody seems to want to call it that. Or maybe it looks like an abortive attempt at a small downtown, only surrounding a parking lot instead of an attractive square. Interconnectivity and better landscaping would have been nice.
As far as that new route out of Puna, it will take a lot of effort to come up with something that both works and disrupts the least possible number of homes. Many of my neighbors here in HPP are ready to fight any highway that crosses the subdivision. I think it should be considered, but with a LOT of conditions. Adding to the difficulty is the fact that the State Highway Dept. has its rather heavy-handed momentum behind four-laning 130 before they turn to other options. I seem to recall that the EIS for four-laning has already been ordered.
No easy answers, and nothing is going to happen very fast. We will be discussing this for years and years, with the traffic getting worse all the time.
Cheers,
Jerry
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