September 28th, 2006 - Public Workshop Results
The third and final public workshop for the Koloa-Po`ipu Area Circulation Plan (KPACP) was held on September 28th, 2006 at the Koloa Neighborhood Center. Approximately 120 participants attended.
The workshop was designed to obtain community input on:
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The draft KPACP project recommendations;
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Project funding preferences, and
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Project implementation priorities (near term, mid-term, and long-term/no implementation).
After opening remarks and introductions, the workshop began with a presentation (located here) by Charlier Associates, Inc. (CAI) staff. The presentation summarized the status of the plan to date, explained the planning concepts (such as connectivity) and data used in developing the draft recommendations, and profiled the draft roadway, transit, bicycle, and pedestrian project recommendations.
Participants were then asked to self-organize around five identical “map stations.” Each map station included large plots of the maps showing the recommended roadway projects (download PDF - 475KB), transit projects (download PDF -466KB ), bicycle projects (download PDF - 559KB), and pedestrian projects (download PDF - 555KB).
Each map showed the recommended projects for that particular mode, the initial draft estimated cost for each project, and the project cost in terms of the Kaua`i Kurrency play money. Participants were first asked to “spend” their Kaua`i Kurrency on the projects they wanted to see funded within the KPACP. Projects from all four maps were considered together as part of this exercise.
For the second exercise, participants were then asked to place green, yellow, and red dots on the project maps indicating implementation priorities. In this exercise, green dots indicated short-term priorities, yellow dots indicated mid-term priorities, and red dots indicated longer-term priorities or projects that should not be implemented.
The results of both exercises should be viewed in the proper context with several caveats. Most importantly, the exercise was not intended to be scientific in nature. For example, participants were not limited to a specific number of dots, potentially skewing the results for or against certain projects. Additionally, there were also some variations in the methods used to “spend” the Kaua`i Kurrency play money on projects, as well as some potential confusion between certain projects. Accordingly, the results should be viewed with caution.
Understanding these caveats, it is most meaningful to interpret the results in terms of relative comparisons between projects for each mode, rather than on numeric results for individual projects. There are very important and meaningful trends that become apparent within this context and are summarized as follows for each travel mode.
Roadways – The results of both exercises for the recommended set of roadway projects are located here. (As a reminder, the map showing the location of each project by project number is located here.) For the play money spending exercise, strong preference was shown for Projects R1 (northerly extension of the Western Bypass), R2 (realignment of the Koloa Road/Po`ipu Road intersection), and R5 (east-west cane haul road). Secondary preference was shown for Projects R7 (east-west connector from Kiahuna Plantation Drive) and R17 (mauka-makai spine road).
The “dots” exercise results are reasonably similar to the money exercise with the exception of Project R7 which did not receive proportionally as many votes for implementation. Project R9, the middle east-west connector in the Weliweli Tract area, received most of the red dots, signifying low support or lack of support for implementing that project.
Transit – The results of both exercises for the recommended set of transit projects located here. (As a reminder, the map showing the location of each project by project number is located here.) For both exercises, strongest preference was given to the Koloa-Po`ipu shuttle circulator service (Project T3). Service geared towards employee destinations was the next-preferred option from both exercises, with the regional commuter service ranking third.
Bicycle – The results of both exercises for the recommended set of bicycle projects located here. (As a reminder, the map showing the location of each project by project number is located here.) For both exercises, substantial preference was given to the Hapa Trail (B5) and Makai/Beachfront Promenade (B2). Interestingly, funding preference was also given to Projects B1 (Lawai Road path) and B7 (Weliweli Road path) that were not reflected in the dots exercise.
Pedestrian – The results of both exercises for the recommended set of pedestrian projects located here. (As a reminder, the map showing the location of each project by project number is located here.) For both exercises, substantial preference was given to Project P10 (Po`ipu Road mauka-makai sidewalk), and to a lesser extent, Project P21 (sidewalk along mauka-makai spine road).
Overall – In comparing all of the projects and travel modes together, roadway and pedestrian projects received the most votes in both exercises. Pedestrian projects received the least, though this may be in part because the multi-use path projects (serving both bicyclists and pedestrians) were included only in the bicycle projects so as to not be double-counted. The Hapa Trail project received the most votes of any individual project, while roadway projects R2 and R5 (identified above) received the next highest votes. The top five projects for funding and for implementation are as follows:
Funding
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Hapa Trail (B5)
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Koloa Road/Po`ipu Road intersection re-alignment (R2)
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East-west cane haul road (R5)
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Lawai Road multi-use path (B2)
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Northerly Extension of the Western Bypass (R1)
Implementation
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Hapa Trail (B5)
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Koloa Road/Po`ipu Road intersection re-alignment (R2)
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East-west cane haul road (R5)
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Northerly Extension of the Western Bypass (R1)
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Makai Po`ipu Road/Western Bypass connector (R4)
(Note: Two other projects – B2, T1, and T3 – scored just below Project R4.)
