Kalaheo Avenue Safety Update

Back on Dec. 20 we posted a photo on this site showing how dangerous parts of Kalaheo Avenue are for people trying to get to the public beach accesses, since they can no longer use "private" rights of way right across the street from where they live. Those pictures were also sent to City Council Chair Barbara Marshall and the Kailua Neighborhood Board, with a request that the appropriate department be contacted to do something about the unsafe road shoulders.

We warned that it was an accident waiting to happen. On Feb. 9, a woman bicyclist was hit by a car at the south end of Kalaheo Avenue, where residents say the path is less than a foot wide -- just like in the photo we posted on Dec. 20 (taken near L'Orange Place at the north end). Fortunately, the woman survived, which is probably why it didn't make the news.

After we alerted Councilwoman Marshall to the accident and asked again if anyone was contacted about the narrow road shoulder situation, her assistant confirmed that they did get a response from the City Dept. of Planning and Permitting. According to the DPP, it is the responsibility of the HOMEOWNERS who live next to the "unimproved sidewalk" areas (meaning the bike/walking lane) to maintain road shoulders!

In other words, once again the City says it's not their job to make the road safe for residents who have to walk further and further just to find a public right of way to the beach. However, the DDP is supposedly going to notify those homeowners that they must do something about their property if it is encroaching into the walking path areas.

So rather than wait for someone to be killed by a speeding car, we're going to look into whether volunteers from BAH can try to clean up and fix some of the worst spots along Kalaheo Avenue on our own. But the City will probably tell us we need a permit to do that, I bet.