Time to move this forgotten promise to the top of the county’s South Maui priorities list.In a recent article, long-time South Maui community leader Buck Joiner explained why the community should not expect to see the long-planned North-South Collector Road built anytime soon, if at all.
I agree with his analysis: the community wants the road to be two lanes with a separate, independent bikeway. The federal and state highways administrations—who control the funding—want the road planned as a four-lane affair. The county’s engineers probably concur, but have conceded the point to the community’s wish for a two-lane road. So the planning for the road—which goes back 20-plus years—remains in deadlock.
That fact does not mean that the bike path has to be dead as well. It just means that we probably cannot get federal money to build it. So let’s fund it with county money and build it incrementally, if need be.
The Kihei community had the foresight to include the bike path, better known as the Kihei Greenway, in the South Maui Community Plan decades ago. But the county never moved on it because it had always been tied to the North-South Collector and federal funding.
As Buck pointed out, the community needs to acknowledge that the road is not going to be built in our lifetimes. But I would also suggest that acknowledgement frees the county to move forward with the bike path.
The county is not going to come to that conclusion on its own. If the greenway had been a high county priority, it would have been built already. Now is the time for the South Maui community to tell the county that you are not going to stand for any more excuses—20 years is long enough. It’s time to make the bike path a priority.
Besides the realization that the North-South Collector is dead in the water, there are other equally important reasons to see this project through. Gasoline is heading towards $5 a gallon, and we need other ways to get around. We, and especially our kids, have forgotten how to transport ourselves without a car. Health specialists say our kids are in such poor shape that they are not likely to outlive their parents. Our kids need to be able to get on their bikes and safely go to school, or just go play outdoors. We are choking our planet with our lifestyle. But to reduce our transportation carbon-footprint, we need safe alternatives.
It’s time for the South Maui community to move the Kihei Greenway to the top of its priorities and no longer accept excuses for why it is not getting built.