52 thoughts on “Kauai Traffic Gridlock: Dubious New Data Intelligence Announced”
Mark D
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.