I Hate Driving in Hawaii

INFRASTRUCTURE: There is nothing pleasant about driving in Hawaii, NOTHING! The cars are crowded like sardines on Hawaii’s constricted roads, despite the skyrocketing gas prices.  The traffic is slow.  The Hawaii sun stifles the air covering  the growing grey plumes of exhaust, fuming without purpose from cars languishing on the road, creating a surreal, intoxicating haze that seeps toward the horizon. You feel imprisoned and dazed by the monotonous inching movements your car is only allowed to take.  It’s hard to concentrate on driving. It seems the car is driving itself!

Traffic lights are confusing especially when multiple and flash opposing colors. They work independently without any semblance of respect for the flow of traffic.  How many times have you stopped at every possible f….n traffic light driving on any major roadway?  The red light seems to beam forever; you are imprisoned for what seems an eternity. Turning green is no solution.  Cluttered pedestrian cross-walks are timed to completely choke the flow of traffic while desperate drivers wait helplessly to pass, waiting for a break in the pedestrian blockade to shoot across.

The pot holes are a plenty.  The same roads are worked on – year after year - blocking traffic and causing depressing delays and congestion.  How come they no can fix?

The road workers direct traffic around their barricades leaving large buffer areas of emptiness that seem unnecessary.  Workers seem to huddle around each other talking story or in conference.  Large tractors crawl, dig the earth and do the impossible.  The work itself is sporadic.

There is no respite on the freeway.  Highway entrances and exits are often reversed from logical order, putting your life at risk every time you enter.  How many times have you entered a freeway, competing for real estate in your lane of entrance with someone attempting to exit a few hundred feet further down the road?

DRIVERS:  At least Hawaii drivers are forever courteous, even in the face of increasingly congested and frustrating streets. Road rage is uncommon, drivers allow others navigating in front of them passage without beeping or finger pointing.

Drivers are delirious from boredom.  They can be seen visibly on their cell phones.  Some bob their heads up and down, ostensibly studying their smart phones cradled on their laps to kill time during sluggishly moving traffic, at traffic lights and even during active driving!  Some are applying make-up, and others are doing whatever!

Some of us drive fighting and clawing our way down the road.  The yellow light has become a prompt to speed up rather than slow down.  This slippery slope of navigating traffic lights has resulted in an increasing number of drivers racing fiercely across intersections to avoid them turning red.  Others drivers have become conditioned by this practice.  Crossing red lights is no longer taboo.  I wonder how many accidents are now occurring at intersections controlled by traffic lights. 

PEDESTRIANS: Hawaii has 2 ½ times the number of pedestrian deaths in folks over 65 than the rest of the country. I am over 65 so I am statistically vulnerable.  Pedestrians seem oblivious when navigating crosswalks.  Some are texting or talking on phones, paying no attention to what lies ahead.  Others slouch with their heads and shoulder drooping toward the asphalt, oblivious like ostriches, and in complete denial about the immediate dangers that lurk from every direction.  It seems those painted lines on the road somehow impart a sense of confidence for the presence of an impenetrable albeit invisible barrier that can never be breached.  Almost no one looks in both directions before or during crossing.  As long as the number of seconds is still counting down on the crosswalk counter, there is an implicit guaranty of entitlement.

OK, NOW THE TRUTH:  The above does not really reflect my present reality.  I live very close in town and can usually avoid traffic.  I never have to drive very far to get anywhere. I know some short cuts and roads to use to avoid unnecessary traffic or road work in order to keep me sane.  Folks are friendly and let you navigate in front in awkward situations when you need to gain access to the lane quickly. Street worker are very skilled and essential to the community.  The truth is that folks do their best, are patient and mostly considerate on the road and off, unlike other communities such as in New York where I grew up a million years ago.

To be sure, the views expressed above were not made up, but they represent a fraction of my driving experience.  While I don’t love driving, I don’t really hate driving either….I am somewhere in between. 

I do think that there are systemic problems with the roads and highways, timing of lights, roadwork expertise and traffic flow that could be improved without too much expense.  The red lights seem inordinately long and the lack of coordinated traffic light control leaves much to be desired. 

I remember a few years back, I was driving along one of the major avenues in Manhattan.  The lights seemed perfectly timed for me to drive the speed limit with the red lights sensing my presence, changing to green as I came within reach, allowing unfettered continuous driving for miles on miles.  This is an experience I have never had in Hawaii but, I believe can be accomplished with a little hardware and a little software.