hunterbishop.com

A tip of the hat to  Aaron Stene at Kona Blog for this link to an article on roundabouts at HeraldNet, in Everett, Washington.

I've seen state Department of Transportation activity in Puna Makai of late -- lots of vehicle counters and small crews of Honolulu-attired DOT people looking intently at traffic from Pahoa High School to the Keaau bottleneck. But I don't know if it's just for the long-term four-lane project or whether they have immediate improvements on their mind.

I didn't make it to the last DOT meeting in Keaau. Did they mention something new?

The meandering article failed to answer at least one question: How did the pedestrians get across the roundabout when the rule for drivers is "do not stop"? Nevertheless I still think the Kahakai intersection with Route 130 is a natural location for a roundabout. It's the second most dangerous intersection in the state. (The first is where the old Government Road meets the highway near the entrance to Pahoa Marketplace.) Yet plans for safety improvements at these dangerous intersections get stuck in bureaucratic quicksand, seeming to induce a state of planning paralysis wherever state and county roads intersect.

Until we overcome the inability or unwillingness of government agencies to work together -- with the community -- on solutions to intersection problems up and down the highway, some of the easiest, least expensive, quickest-to-install and life-saving solutions may fall by the wayside and the answer to our pleas for help will always be "No can."