Wednesday, September 17, 2008

PM Zipper Lane: One More Step Towards Traffic Relief

For many years now, I have been working with traffic analysis and making recommendations in order to reduce the acute traffic congestion that plagues our city every morning and afternoon. Some of these have already been completed, while others, like the Middle Street merge fix, are still in limbo. I was pleased with today's Honolulu Advertiser front page article, where I see that another one of my recommendations is going forward: The implementation of a PM Zipper lane.

Some other recommendations:
  • Fix the existing H-1 bottlenecks, such as the ones listed in this Honolulu Star Bulletin article.
  • Implementing contraflow lanes along Dillingham Boulevard.
  • Improving traffic signal timing and coordination, as mentioned in a previous post.
  • Implementing or encouraging flextime or 4x10 work weeks - something which the State is now beginning to explore.
  • Have the UH begin classes later, so that the earliest classes do not coincide with the peak of rush hour.
Implement the Waiau widening project, adding a lane from the H-2 to the Waikele/Waipahu off-ramp.

And in the longer term:
  • Build one-lane-per-direction underpasses at existing maxed-out intersections that cannot be widenend.
  • Build the reversible HOT lanes from the H-1/H-2 merge to Iwilei.