Campaign Corner: Complete Streets for Our Communities
Editor’s note: Stanley Chang is a candidate for Hawaii’s 1st Congressional District.
An exciting plan to make it easier to walk, bike, or take the bus along Beretania, Young, and King Streets recently passed the Transportation Committee on the Honolulu City Council and will come up for a vote before the full Council.
The BYK Project, which started as a master鈥檚 thesis at the University of Hawaii, is a great example of an evidence-based initiative that began through community action.
Beretania, Young, and King Streets form a crucial lifeline between the Moiliili, McCully, Makiki, and Ward neighborhoods.
All three streets intersect with major arteries such as McCully Street, Kalakaua Avenue, and Keeaumoku Street.
Recent studies by the City and County of Honolulu show that this area is highly dependent on mass transit. The BYK corridor also parallels one of our most congested freeway segments and covers a portion of the island that is vital to our state鈥檚 livelihood.
I strongly support the goals of this project, which hopes to create 鈥渃omplete streets鈥 accessible to all users, from pedestrians to drivers. This includes ideas such as designating safer protected bike lanes, adding trees for shade, and improving buses so that riders can board more quickly. Many urban areas around the world have adopted such concepts with excellent results. The BYK Project is a natural complement to our work on the City Council to strengthen road and infrastructure funding.
Enhancing the beauty and safety of our streets will make the BYK corridor more livable for residents and more desirable for businesses. The proposed improvements will be extremely cost-effective and will create economic opportunity by encouraging residents and visitors to patronize local vendors.
Our streets, which form the backbone of our communities, must be accessible to all. I hope and anticipate that the success of this project will lead both our city government and engaged residents to study similar improvements in other areas. This is a plan that I am proud to support: a plan that looks to the future and lays the groundwork for a community that will be enjoyed for generations to come.
About the author: Stanley Chang currently serves on the Honolulu City Council representing District 4, which encompasses Ala Moana to Hawaii Kai. He is a Democratic candidate for U.S. Congress in the 1st district of Hawaii (Kapolei to Hawaii Kai).
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