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5 Pages <br /> Another aspect that should be emphasized in prioritizing, justifying, and planning is safety, <br /> especially in emergencies like fire. Traffic breaks down when too many cars enter a chokepoint <br /> sometimes to the point it is literally faster to walk than drive. If there is a fire makai of my <br /> house, I will be trapped if Kawaihae Rd gets jammed, or an escape over Kohala Mountain Rd is <br /> blocked. It is possible to estimate the numbers of people who will be similarly trapped by <br /> traffic in different scenarios. Perhaps that is a metric that can help to justify provision of <br /> practical if not temporary emergency bypasses like in Waikoloa. <br /> Number 2 <br /> The section of the draft GP that you attached to your message (4.2 Access and Mobility) does <br /> not address the primary concern of most residents in the Village which is the ability to escape <br /> the flames during a wildfire emergency, and to bring into the Village the first responders from <br /> the Puako fire and police stations needed to fight the fire. <br /> The policies governing access needed to protect health and safety of residents during disaster <br /> events are addressed in Section 4.4 Public Facilities. Objective 32 sets out the policies we need <br /> to protect Village residents. Those include policies aimed at ensuring that Waikoloa Village will <br /> have a second access road -- <br /> 32.h. Establish, map and maintain alternative and emergency evacuation routes in each high <br /> risk hazard area. <br /> 32.k. Develop and/or improve secondary access roads for those communities with only one <br /> means of ingress/egress. <br /> 32.20 Prioritize hazard mitigation projects in the CIP (Capital Improvement Plan). <br /> Our primary concern with the Draft GP is that these policies are not implemented with proposed <br /> actions. We submitted comments last summer asking that a second access road be identified as <br /> a priority project with a schedule for implementation. The current Recommended Draft does <br /> not respond to that request. <br /> The South Kohala Community Development Plan adopted in 2008 includes a chapter establishing <br /> priorities for Waikoloa Village. <br /> The Waikoloa Village Plan added "action plans" and identified priority projects. Specifically, <br /> the Village Plan, at p. 93, identified "construction of a second access road to Queen Ka'ahu- <br /> manu Highway" as the first priority for the community, and adopted the following policy: <br /> _unnnr ._,hawaii.rr.con 808-938-2954 or evans.kohala(a)gmail.com 808-345-5810 <br />