Can data intelligence vs. actual mitigation efforts reduce traffic problems on Kauai’s only mostly two-lane highway? In a press release today, the County of Kauai and Near Intelligence announced the results of a partnership for “real-world insights to inform transportation planning on the island.”
“Near was thrilled to partner with the country by providing our data intelligence platform to inform recommendations for improving Kauai’s transportation system. The insights from our real-world data will help them understand resident and visitor travel patterns, identify intuitive solutions for reducing traffic congestion, and contribute to planning for a more sustainable Kauai.” — Anil Mathews, CEO of Near.
While we await their specific recommendations, here are some initial thoughts to launch the discussion.
Kauai handles 1,000,000 annual visitors plus residents on its roads.
With more than one million annual visitors and up to 12,000 added rental cars on the island any day, the only island highway suffers sunrise-to-sunset congestion that can resemble Southern California traffic on a smaller scale.
Two areas are especially prone to gridlock. Those areas are known as the “Kapaa Crawl” and the corridor from Lihue heading west towards Poipu via the Tree Tunnel. The “Kapaa Crawl” makes it a nightmare sometimes to travel between the North and South Shore. You have to go through Kapaa; there’s no other way. And once you clear Kapaa, you have the congestion after Lihue to get to Poipu.
Expanding the island’s only highway and other roads is years away if ever.
We recently mentioned that the idea of a bypass road inland of Lihue is again being discussed. Should that ever happen, it would be to improve southwest and eastbound traffic to flow away from Lihue. In addition, it should reduce the “Kapaa Crawl” and the entire situation between Kauai’s east side and its southwest tourist area.
Traffic on Kauai is now considered a significant safety hazard due to the inability of emergency vehicles to pass.
Another study is being proposed, which is awaiting funding. The County Council unanimously approved it, although one member estimated that such an addition would be no less than ten years away.
With limited public transportation too, the county turned to data.
Kauai County and Near used data from the long-troubled Hawaii Tourism Authority, the state Department of Transportation (the same people responsible for the indefinite runway closure at Honolulu Airport), and what they termed “anecdotal information about congestion.”
Near’s job is to provide “a deeper understanding of actual residential and tourism travel patterns to reveal origins and destinations; distance traveled, and variations across time of day, day of the week, and seasonality.”
- Where are the island’s hotspots?
- Where are common origin and destination points for visitors and residents?
- What are the main travel corridors based on the time of day?
- How far do tourists typically drive in a day?
- What do transportation patterns look like at different times of the year?
Kauai travel pattern analysis report.
“This report provides insights and recommendations to consider for how to reimagine travel on the island by potentially:
- Creating mobility hubs around the island where tourists can access transportation services.
BOH: Can the current archaic bus system be upgraded to provide meaningful transport for visitors and residents and help eliminate car trips on Kauai?
- Introducing shuttles and first/last mile micro-transit solutions.
BOH: Shuttles have been tried before and are in limited use now. They have had limited success.
- Increasing the availability of micro transportation offerings like bikes and scooters.
BOH: Bikes and scooters are extremely problematic on Kauai. There isn’t adequate infrastructure (lanes) for them to operate safely, and accidents involving them are frequent and sometimes deadly.
- Setting up a public electric charging station network around the island.
BOH: There are no level three fast chargers for electric vehicles on Kauai, and the level two charges are few and far between and sometimes inoperative. We’ve tried using them with limited success.
- Encouraging the use of car share.
BOH: This is an interesting idea that hasn’t been tried widely on Kauai before. Car-sharing online platforms are rapidly increasing in popularity. This is similar to car rental but is designed to be convenient for those renting cars for shorter periods (like a few hours to a day). Visitors pay for how long they have a vehicle and the distance they drive.
- Establishing satellite car rental locations around the island.
This could provide limited relief, such as having rental locations based in Poipu. Therein visitors could theoretically shuttle to Poipu and later acquire a rental vehicle, thus eliminating some traffic in one of the two busiest corridors.
What’s not mentioned?
The ideas of enhanced carpooling, ride-sharing, and ride-hailing are not included. There remains limited access to Uber, for example, on Kauai. Sometimes they are available, and at other times they are not.
Carpooling may have significant potential on neighbor-friendly Kauai. Google-owned Waze provided Waze Carpool; however, its service designed to connect drivers and commuters was recently shuttered after six years.
Peer-to-peer ridesharing. This seems to be another worthwhile but not mentioned avenue to pursue. That is where a rider and a driver agree to share a ride, usually via a smartphone app. The driver offers the ride, and the rider pays a share of the cost. The charge covers fuel, maintenance, insurance, etc.
Who is Near?
“Near, a global, full-stack data intelligence software-as-a-service (“SaaS”) platform curates one of the world’s largest sources of intelligence on people, places, and products.”
What are your ideas for improving the traffic problems on Kauai?
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I couldn’t believe the massive amount of traffic on Kauai. It was so bad, I honestly wouldn’t go back there, nor suggest anyone go there due to the major problem there. They really need to improve the roads to be 4-lane highways (2 lanes in each direction). I stayed in Kapaa and couldn’t even turn left onto the highway at 6am because it was a constant flow of vehicles. And I noticed most of the vehicles driven at that time were locals. It was always a constant and steady flow of cars once on the highway. With all the locals and tourists, something needs to be done to address this bad situation on the island.
Simply the size and geographical structure of an Island will determine the amount of people capable to live and visit there before it become a nuisance to everyone. Limiting the access is the only viable long range solution.
I think it would have to be a combination of the already mentioned idea of introducing shuttles and first/last mile micro-transit solutions, while virtually eliminating almost all of the island’s rental car services. By switching over to an all electric shuttle service, with shuttles running every 15 minutes, coupled with another final destination “personal use” electric “golf cart” type of vehicles for extremely short-range travel within that specific area where they’ve arrived, and are wanting to explore. The jobs taken away from locals by eliminating the rental car companies could be replaced by the new job openings needed to be filled within the new shuttle service, as well as the micro-transit golf cart type of service I mentioned.
Businesses and government offices expand (or change)their hours of operation to create new windows of access. Flex scheduling for employee staff to reduce “the going to work and leaving work”mass migrations.
Put a cap on number of rental cars (public and private)
If I remember correctly all the work in adding extra lanes on kauai should have started in 2010.That never happened. If it was started back then we would not have this problem . So keep on improving the airport so the Marriotts and Hyatts can keep on making $$$$$ but don’t worry about the roads and the locals. Take advantage of our culture of not complaining. You will change the culture and people will stop coming. Don’t you wonder why Aloha Is Dying. Well people can just take soo much. When Aloha dies so does the travel industry. By then there will be no difference in any other warm destination for travelers. You reap what you sow. If I made any mistakes in spelling or grammar it doesn’t matter cause I know you got .y point
Data to solve these issues. Please give us an AI mayor to go along with the data. Data and uberasation has caused these problems in the fist place.
Apparently the traffic has gotten much worse since our last visit to Kauai. My only comment is that tourists want to rent a car and they want to sightsee, including a few trips from the North Shore to the South shore, and back. It might be best to inform them of the busiest times of the day/evening on that highway. That said, we must protect the infrastructure of this beautiful island!!
Princeville should have direct shuttle to the airport for all guests as well as the Hilton Hyatt should all shuttle their guests get rid of rental cars they ruin the island create traffic and mayhem that’s not what Kauai is all about they should have some type of restrictions from tourist driving in school zones during certain hours mahalo
As a former representative of HVB I lived in Kauai years ago and saw the steady degradation of the quality of life. The structure of the island simply cannot accommodates so many people and cars at the same time. Visitors have to be limited with a permit access fluctuating according to the months of the year. Too harsh you think? the alternative is chaos…..
Monorail. Move people above the traffic. Eliminate the need to use driver-only vehicles to reach work, school, and appointments on a daily basis between main population centers. Achieves similar goals to buses without being trapped in gridlock. Runs on electric power instead of fossil fuel.
Just like on Oahu!!!
LOL
That’s more of a Shelbyville idea.
How about some passing lane sections on north shore. Could be between Kealia and Anahola and Moloa’a areas. This could ease traffic backups.
Aloha, put 10 Kauaians who live anywhere on the Eastside or North Shore and you’ll probably get a lot of good ideas(who hasn’t been stuck in the KC thinking if only they would,,,) at a lot cheaper price than some off island consultant. I have a couple:
Encourage through signage an “Aloha” merge system at our very busy, esp school letting out time, Kapaa skatepark roundabout For destination locations in Lihue like Costco, Home Depot, any public school and encourage ride sharing through the institutions. If you could eliminate even 10-20% of the cars parked at Costco?
Something needs to be done but here on Kaua’i we’ve been staring at the ruins of Coco Palms for quite a while now. Us and the rest of the people who visit our beautiful island
Hi Kauaidoug.
Thanks for the suggestions. We like the idea of ride-sharing and would be happy to take someone along to Costco or the airport or ride with them. The concept feels well suited to Kauai’s demeanor.
Aloha.
On the island of Capri only residents of Capri can drive,this includes all other Italian citizens. Transportation is readily available by private car service or taxis,it is not cheap but it is high quality -there is also a local bus service
Recently had to travel from Princeville to Lihue for early, 730, DMV business. Traffic was backed up in spite of contraflow being in effect. There were Zero tourist vehicles on road at that time. Just folks going to work. Talked to a shuttle driver a while back about traffic and she observed that there has been talk about widening choke point routes for thirty years.
Hawaii, get over your selves, quit blaming visitors, who make your economy survivable,for all of your procrastination and neglect of infrastructure and fix things for everyone. As with most problems in the islands, these are self inflicted and made worse due to incompetent governing.
And will you please tow away the abandoned cars along the highways and clean the park restro
Is all you people do is complain about mediocretraffic congestion?
It was stupid 15 years ago it is stupid today. Negligence solves nothing. To sit and complain Daily and do nothing is as simple as it gets,…. just stupid
As someone who has been coming to Kauai since 1980 I see the increase but not much infrastructure to keep up with growth. I think a shuttle from airport to all the timeshares, hotels, etc. would be great. We only rent a car because there is no way to get back and
forth to the airport. Having cars available by day only would be awesome! Our car sits in the garage most of the time we are here. I know Hyatt did rent by the day before covid.
Having more car rental hubs is a great idea also.
Fewer tourists is the only solution,however that is achieved
On every island we need to start really questioning How and WHY do all these thousands of cars keep coming here?! We can’t stop visitors, but we Can stop these vehicles… why is everyone acting like cars Have To continuously keep arriving, fleet after fleet, every year?
Look at the shuttle bus systems: every full bus takes 10-12 cars off the road, but same number of people, just less vehicles.
We’re islands and need to set borders and boundaries and limits, not because of politics, just because of resources.
If vehicles keep flooding the islands, there’s no ‘management’ trick to manipulate the system to work as if there’s less vehicles.
Well said.
The place is just another tourist trap like many places around the world 🌎 there is unfortunately nothing you can do about it because you can’t stop people from coming if they want to. that’s what you get when you have an over populated planet… Suck it up..
I have long said that in order to work for the country engineering and planning departments, one must first fail a special IQ test. This is a perfect example. There is nothing they need to know that I or most people who live here couldn’t tell them ourselves. But they plan to spend millions with predetermined results of doing nothing worthwhile. I go to Oahu for doctors visits regularly and return without seeing the doctor because of missing flights due to roadwork or traffic coming from Kekaha. Kawakami loves big fancy sounding nothingburgers like this. Yawn. We need actual lanes!
All the Islands, in my opinion should limit vehicle imports and take care of the Hawaii folks first. If one vehicle becomes inoperable let a new one in. You have the power because you are on an island. Just a thought,I came to visit 50 years ago at age 18 and are still coming back. The most wonderful part I experience is the people of your beloved land. I do not rent a car ,but are able to get around. Protect yourselves, but I hope I can still come back. Thanks Lorne
Definitely Lyft! The app looks for a driver nearby, you can choose to wait and save, share or not etc. When I decided to move to Maui from Washington, DC, I donated my car and signed up for a Tesla on Maui. While waiting (or visiting DC), I take Lyft. Even when I go to Honolulu, I just check where the nearest Lyft driver is ..especially after so many van operators went out of business during Covid and the only one left is super expensive! It’s good for the local economy, since the drivers are obviously already living on that island. I know the company takes their share, but you can always tip (which I always do!). The next option is the public bus which I have also taken in Maui while waiting for my car to be shipped ….then carpool!
1) provide an after practice bus service to kids participating in sports.
2) create a special parking area at the airport with security for locals who will be gone an extended period of time..somewhere not in the regular parking area. Can’t take luggage on the bus so,that is not a good option.
3) create parking areas should a system of ride sharing become available. Riders could pay the driver or take turns driving if they work at the same establishment, I.e., WilcoxHospital, Barking Sands.
Hawaii in general, and Kauai in particular are relatively small, and they above capacity. This is just one of the many problems that over tourism creates. there’s really only one answer, fewer tourists. Building more/bigger roads 1. Take a long time. and 2. is a temporary solution since with more roads, there will be even more tourists, and pretty soon you’re right back where you started.
There are popular tourist areas in Europe where caps have been put in place
on the number of rental units available and other areas where entry is only
allowed with a reservation.
It’s really about the number of vehicles on the road not the number of people
There’s a direct correlation between the number of tourists and the number of rental cars, and thus the number of cars. I guess one thing that Hawaii could do is restrict the number of rental cars that are allowed on the islands. The result will be a drop in the number of tourists since most of them want to have a car and if they can’t get one they won’t come. At least everywhere but in Honalulu. I suppose that they could make up for it by adding more organized tours that utilize mass transportation (i.e.tour busses) that pick people up and drop them off at the resorts.
Well, the richest folks in the world who are buying up the Hawaiian Islands are mostly tech guys, with the exception of Oprah, who also enjoys limiting access, once she buys an area. I suppose the collective tech brains that own the Islands can come up w/solutions-however, the “I got mine” mentality prevails w/the elite. Once they own most of Hawaii it becomes much more appealing to charge/restrict or shut down American’s most beloved Hawaiian landmarks.
I haven’t noticed a lot of traffic jams involving private helicopters, so I’m not sure the people you’re talking about are all that concerned with our proletarian challenges.
limit the amount of visitors on the island at anyone tine.
Well if SWA would limit their aggressive fare wars that is trying to try grow the market from their massive route structure that would help.
Don’t encourage them by buying tickets on them……there’s healthy growth and there’s unhealthy growth, SWA contributes to the latter.
So there wasn’t any traffic before Southwest Airlines?
Of course there was, they just made it worse with their business model…flood a market with cheap fares to get established then raise them over time. They use their size to accomplish this as they can operate at a loss to get established. It’s called the “SWA effect”….if you are concerned about over crowding you really shouldn’t be supporting them.
It would be interesting to see what the visitor count was before SWA started fling to HI and after. Are more people now coming or is it about the same and they have just moved to SWA vs. the other carriers.
There was a noticeable difference on Maui once SW started flying here. Maybe not so much with the traffic specifically, but there was a noticeable difference in “atmosphere”.
From the perspective of a non-traffic engineer you have two options. Build more and bigger roads or limit the number of cars. Since there is likely not the land easily available and likely not the money or social will to fund constriction seems Kauai is left with limiting the number of POVs. The problem may solve itself with in increases in fees, increases in limiting access, and so on. People may tire of time sitting in traffic and go elsewhere.
Roundabouts! Remove the bulk of traffic lights.
I own a car but ride the Kauai Bus,especially to the airport. Both residents and visitors need to have a paradigm shift and to re think their every day car culture. Walking communities;a safe sidewalk from Poipu to Koloa,a sidewalk from Kalaheo to Poipu ,a sidewalk from Lawai to Hanapepe with Hanapepe being more walkable. These sidewalks should be wide so that people with mobility issues are able to use them in wheelchairs or electric vehicles.
I agree. Walking lanes and bicycle lanes, similiar to other countries.
Instead of traffic signals, do you think installing more roundabouts might help? They do keep traffic moving. New Zealand’s South Island is almost all roundabouts and traffic moves along really well.
I don’t understand why hop on- hop off buses are not extensively used since everything comes off the on highway. If the stops and buses were frequent enough and with some (free) park and ride lots strategically placed at key intersections with the main highway, that would be enough to keep our family off the highway going north or west when we visit.
Restrict the number of rental cars available on Kauai. Get it back to the 1995 number. If visitors can’t find a way around they won’t come.
None of the “solutions” mentioned will reduce car congestion because none of them discourage car use. Adding more pavement (more lanes, more roads, etc) will not only be exhibits fly costly, but it will make congestion worse due to a well described phenomenon called Induced Demand (look it up). Only strictly limiting automobile use, by either controlling rentals and/or charging high car use fees will check the tourists’ insatiable desire to have a car available 24/7.
From Oahu, commending Kauai for “setting boundaries” and being realistic about your island mobility system. We are on Islands, and more roads can’t be built, so something else has to change.
Kauai we commend you for looking at what else can be changed, whether it’s the modes of transport, number of cars on the island, the timing of who drives when, or something new, whatever. 1M cars is ridiculous on any island, even ours.
Oahu got a taste of life without the Thousands of extra vehicles on the roads when they were all parked empty at Aloha Stadium and other civic lots during covid. It was uncanny but beautiful.
What’s the life cycle of a (rental) car? Once it gets on your island, it stays on the island…
Keep your boundaries Kauai.
🤣 There’s no incentive for any solution. It’s gonna be California in 6-7 more years guaranteed. All the data in the world won’t solve the problem. And they want to build coco palms again. Only way is another pandemic, a hurricane or limit people coming onto the island. But can’t do the latter because greed and survival comes into play.
How about deal with it👍🏽Great solution there.
Does Kauai have a traffic engineer, or have a private one available?
As someone who worked on traffic signals for many years, it seems like there is no rhyme or reason to the timing of the signals, leading to stopping at every signal.
Also, signal timing can be changed either remotely or on time clock to adjust the timing to different traffic conditions.
This does cost money to do, but would be worth it in saved fuel costs and less stress. Put some of the staggering visitor taxes to good use!
Typical government garbage. Like they really need to spend $100,000 or more on a study to tell them somethng they already know and has existed for a long time? And what about all the tourist taxes, whose pocket are they going to instead of fixing the roads?