2005-04-22 TInnovations - Laserfiche WebLink

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Okay so the- lets take these questions one at a time because I think they deserve some looking at cause I think thats what- ultimately this is whats gonna-your decision is likely to hinge on the traffic issues. So, will there a 25 mph zone. It is possible that HDOT could say this is a school zone and you have to put a 25 mph- but let me say that 25 mph zones on State highways are used in some situations but it is exceedingly unlikely that it would be recommended here for several reasons. There will be no children walking or biking to school. The school buildings are located at least 600 feet off the ingress road. There are no play fields closer than 600 feet from the road. The drop off and pick up area is at least 500feet from the entrance. It is possible and even probable that the Hawaii Department of Transportation will recommend a 45 mph speed zone. And I would like to speak real quickly to that issue. We worked with the engineer when he was doing his traffic study and took measurements of the car speeds in addition to the other measurements were taken. The average speed going through that area during busy times and slow times is 45 mph. There are a few cars that get up to 50 but theyre mostly around 42, 43, 46, somewhere right in there. So, according to Mr. Witcher, the Traffic Engineer and from what weobservedtherewillnotbeasignificantimpactonthethroughputonthehighwayifthespeed limit is set at 45 mph. The second issue is will there be 80 more cars on the highway? This number has surfaced from various places and been reported in the paper. The fact is that in the absence of anything else, if you counted up the cars you could say yes, there will be 80 cars coming to the site. But really, if you look at the statistics, we surveyed the parents and almost all are already using the highway in the morning and in the afternoon. So, about a third of them live north and they already travel on the highway both up and back to drop their kids at the current location. The ones that live south most of them, all but 4 in fact that we surveyed which was 78% of the parents, they drop their kids at the school and then they go into work or they go into shop or whatever else theyre going to do, they use the highway already so it is not changing that, its not changing that pattern. I have done some massaging on the map and I do know that theres lies, darn lies and statistics but I would like to assure you that- about and when you consider the parent cars that will be added there are going to between and 8 and 10 additional cars added to that traffic stream. There will also be about 10 additional staff cars so were talking about 20 more cars on the highway in the morning and in the afternoon. I ask you to compare that to 2200 cars per hour that are currently going past the location. It is not a lot of additional cars. And thats assuming no carpooling which is estimated by the traffic engineer at perhaps as much as 20 or 30% and if the carpooling factor is accurate there could be a reduction in the number of vehicles that actually travel through that intersection. To be fair, many of the carpooling families will probably also use the highway so its probably not a fair number but I can say unequivocally that there is not going to be an impact to the throughput of traffic at that intersection if you lower it to 45 and you add those vehicles. Were only talking about a very small number of vehicles. So the next issue would be how do the southbound parents get turned around and that was answered earlier. I would be happy to revisit that if the Commissioners felt it was necessary. You want me to do that? Okay. GALDONES:Mr. WOERNER? MR. WOERNER:Yeah? GALDONES:Would it be better using the slide? 8 EXHIBIT D