“Standards evolve over time,” said Jon Nouchi, the city’s deputy director for Transportation Services. A survey map of Honolulu in 1950 State Land Survey Division The one big piece missing is the H-1 Freeway, which wouldn’t be completed for another decade or so. King still didn’t extend as far east as it does now, and roads such as Kapiolani and Harding Avenue didn’t yet exist, according to this 1902 map: A survey map of lower Manoa in 1902 University of Hawaii Manoaīy 1950, all the surface streets that make up King/Waialae are there. Twenty years later the streets were developed a bit more. Meanwhile, even as far back as 1881 maps show that King/Waialae merge starting to take shape: Here’s another tricky spot - the intersection near Kawaiahao Plaza - depicted in a survey map back in 1911: The Kawaiahao Plaza intersection in a 1911 map State Land Survey DivisionĪbout 108 years later, a Civil Beat reader wrote to say she’s considering painting the lines in that intersection herself “in the dead of night” to make it easier to navigate. Historical maps help tell the story of how our current fates were sealed, in some cases more than a century ago. They took shape before the island was so saturated with cars and before the H-1 split Honolulu’s streets and neighborhoods in two, complicating the local traffic patterns. Many of these intersections are remnants of a bygone era. Honolulu is dotted with such labyrinthine intersections - spots where the streets tangle awkwardly together, sucking in drivers and spitting them out in a completely different direction if they’re not careful. These 10 Oahu Intersections Drive Our Readers Crazy March 27, 2019 King/Waialae is bad, but it’s hardly unique. Mahalos and shakas to you guys!) Historical Designs Stuck In The Present They eventually took pity and stopped to let us pass. (The only way Carlie and I got through was thanks to the aloha of our fellow drivers. It’s one of the worst traffic gantlets to run in Honolulu, particularly during rush hour. To cross, they have to wait for a smorgasbord of cars moving in three different directions in front of them to clear. The spot is especially bad for the drivers who’ve just exited the H-1 Freeway and then head Ewa-bound on King toward University, per the yellow arrow above. Just look at everything that’s going on in that frame. I don’t know if you can even call that configuration an “intersection.” TRIGGER WARNING: The following screenshot, taken from Google Maps, might cause local drivers to feel helplessness and despair. Instead, my co-pilot Carlie Procell and I quickly realized as we circled around lower Manoa that the intersection where King Street merges with Waialae Avenue, near the Hawaii Humane Society, requires even more skill and fortitude. The video drew a lot of reader response, with local commuters flagging other problem spots across the island.īut merging onto the freeway, it turned out, wasn’t even the hardest place we navigated on our film shoot. Those who dare to enter there have to floor the gas pedal like they’re driving the getaway car in a bank robbery just to avoid a collision. To me, that crazy entrance has always been the poster child for all the haphazard designs that make navigating Honolulu’s roads so tricky.ĭrivers embarking at University have maybe 15 yards to merge onto the freeway as cars fly past. Recently, my Civil Beat colleagues and I decided that the world needs to know just how nerve-wracking it can be merging east onto the H-1 Freeway at University Avenue, so we shot a minute-long video and posted it across social media:
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