 Good afternoon. I'm Tim Appichella. I'm the host for a new show called Hawaii Moving Forward, a show dedicated to transportation issues here in the state of Hawaii. But more importantly, I think a show that's dedicated to finding some potential solutions to our traffic problems. And with me today, I have Daniel Alexander, who's the director for advocacy, planning, and communication. Daniel, thank you very much for joining us this afternoon. We appreciate it very much. Tim, great to be here. Yeah. Daniel, you've got a lot of titles and therefore you have a lot of work. And it sounds like a great organization you're with. You're with Hawaii Bicycling League. Is that correct? Yeah, exactly. So Hawaii Bicycling League, we're a 42-year-old non-profit organization member base. We represent about 2,000 members. And our mission is to get more people riding bikes, whether it's for health, recreation, or for transportation. And we do that through advocacy, so pushing for safer streets for biking and education, educating both bicyclists and drivers, and then events, trying to get people out, get them excited about riding. Things like bike month, where if you don't already have biking as a part of your life, sometimes you need something to push you out to try it out and see if it fits. Whether it's for just getting a little more exercise or getting to the beach or getting to work. Okay. There was a part of your title that really attracted me the most, and that was advocacy. So tell me a little bit about how you're advocating for bikes, be with the local communities, or with the legislature, whatever that entails. Yeah. So a big part of our organization is trying to get a network of bikeways and safe streets for people to be able to get from point A to point B safely on a bike. And for most people that means having a dedicated bicycle facility. So obviously when you look at our transportation environment, our roads, quite a bit needs to change before that's going to work for the majority of people. Just throw out a figure. It's something like around two-thirds of people that we consider this interested but concerned category. They would like to bike but they need a separate environment for them to bike in for them to feel comfortable. So we're trying to bring it to the masses. Right now we have about 2% of our transportation trips are occurring by bike and there's obviously tremendous more potential and so we need a bikeway network that's going to allow for that. So basically that means working with both our county level elected officials, our state level elected officials to budget, to set clear policies that the way we should be shaping our transportation infrastructure. And of course that means working with a lot of communities too. So that's really where we try to, we hit the ground, we work with communities to find advocates within communities that can speak to their neighbors and make the self for why this is a good thing for the community as a whole. Okay. Do you have an estimation of approximately how many bicyclists we have out there in the communities? So it's a difficult thing to say. So we have island-wide, I think it's 1.3% of commute trips so those to work are by bike. And if you zoom down into the Honolulu area, it jumps up to about 2.5%. So you just think about, you know, we have an island of about a million people so it equates to a fair amount of people that are biking. And then of course a lot of people bike just for recreation and health purposes or they might bike to go to the beach or go to the store. Those things we don't necessarily think about as transportation but are contributing to the whole. Well, I saw some statistics here and I thought was really interesting. Particularly one was about 240,000 people live within one mile of a rail station or a proposed rail station and about 520,000 live within a biking distance of approximately 3 miles. So was that off of census data or how did those numbers come up? So yeah, we have detailed census data on where people live. They actually are Oahu Metropolitan Planning Organization. They have smaller subdivisions they use for traffic analysis zones and so they're actually much smaller units. And so we looked at that and we said, okay, well here are the rail stations which we know where they're going to be. How many people are within a walkable distance? Which is a mile, you know, for our transit and development, it's largely been a half mile which is an extremely short walk. I think in reality a lot of people are willing to walk three quarters to a mile. You know, that's a 20 minute walk say, 25 minutes. But if you take a bike which you can move, I don't know, three, four times as fast on a bike with the same amount of energy as you're walking, you get a much greater distance. And so obviously with those numbers show is it's more than double the amount of population that are going to be within that reachable zone to go and access the rail and to use it for their transportation need, whether they're going to work or some other transportation need. So yeah, I think us trying to make the most of rail working with bikes and that means both accommodating people on the rail, people walking their bikes at the rail, but also safely getting to the rail, I think is going to give us a much bigger bang for our buck. And you know, obviously we're talking about transportation, but there are all sorts of public health benefits around it. We can get people integrating more exercise into their daily lives, all the cardiovascular, diabetes benefits, all those things which we don't often think about when we think about the cost of transportation, but as a societal cost and the individual cost, those are really gigantic. And if we can get people basically having an active part to their transportation habits, we can make big headways in those areas. I would think that these are pretty large numbers and it would be great. I'm a bike enthusiast. That doesn't mean I'm bicycling here in the state because I have some concerns about safety, which we'll talk about in a little bit. But these are fairly significant numbers that were within a proposed rail station. On a best guess or most hopeful scenario, what percent do you think you can get people onto a bike? Right now you said about 1.3%. I don't know why it's 1.3%. So you know, there's a different solution for every area of the community. I'll give you an odd example. So actually at a census tract level, the highest bike mode share of any census tract, which just to give everyone an idea, Waikiki is six census tracts. So census tracts represents a couple thousand people, something like that, like 4,000 people. Laie in the North Shore actually has the highest bike mode share. It has like a 15% bike mode share. Wow, that's amazing. The university there, because of the Polynesian culture, the job centers there are nearby, and it's relatively bikeable with the Laie. So we wouldn't think necessarily about Laie as being a great biking spot, but Mililani, Kailua, there's all these communities, if we start thinking about them on a small scale, it actually is attainable for kids to bike to school, but for people to bike to work, people to bike to the transit, and the bus for most of the island. I think we could definitely achieve somewhere 10% plus. Wow. And so the 1.3% is just primary commute mode. So someone that, for example, my boss lives in Kailua, and he bikes from his house to his bus stop, hops on the bus, goes across the poly to downtown, and then bikes into our office. And he would be counted as a bus commuter actually. Because the dominant mode is transit. He's traveling most of his time on the bus. And so I think when you actually get in where we're talking about multimodalism, which I think that's the whole conversation with the rail, I mean every rail trip is going to be multimodal. Either walking there, either you're doing a park and ride, or you're doing a kiss and ride, or you're arriving by another bus, or you're arriving by bike. I think the opportunity for bike to work of rail is just tremendous. It's not that everyone's going to be biking three miles to the rail station, but it's that we can get a greater chunk. Basically that increases the pie. So I think the opportunity there is just tremendous in leading to more transit use as their primary, the majority of their trip is on the rail system or on the bus. But that bike is what makes it a viable route because the timing and the amount of energy it takes for them to get there just makes sense. Okay. Well that leads me to the question that I had down the list here, but I'm bringing it to the top. And that is describe your interaction with the heart folks and the bus folks, the transit folks. And are you getting some progress? Where are some of the roadblocks you perceive, not just with the agencies, but within the whole state itself? I mean, what roadblocks are you coming up against with and what advances are you making? So, you know, the rail endeavors we all know is a very big and complex one. So I can't blame the parties for focusing kind of on the core, build the rail system, but I'll say over the years from beginning I think we first, maybe my organization first met with heart, maybe 2008 or so, and they weren't very tuned in to the bike issues at that point. But over the recent years, I think as it's started to become a reality, they've sort of said, oh, okay, we should really be looking at these. You know, when you show them a number like, hey, look at all these potential customers, really, that's what they are, all these folks that can find utility in your system and use it. I think they've been receptive to that. And so right now I'd say we actually have some pretty progressive policies that the heart has taken on. So one, for example, is bikes are going to be allowed in railcars at all times. Yeah, so there'll be a specific bike car in which there are hangers that basically they allow for kind of a space-efficient way, which initially they weren't actually going to include those. So very good they're included because it's a lot tidier and more efficient. And how many potential bikes would a railcar hold? So I think there are four. There's hooks for four bikes in a car. But my understanding is that if those aren't available, you can still bring a bike in. Obviously space permitting, if the thing's packed, you're going to have to wait your turn, that sort of thing. Interesting. Yeah, so you look around and not all rail systems allow that. That's progress. Yeah, but I think we're looking, I think, more to the model, maybe Vancouver and Portland, where in those places, bikes do play an integral role with their transit systems. And so I think it's a good thing that we're looking to those models. And now that we're early in the process, I think there's just the opportunity to do that. Another really small, it's a menini little thing, but we only have one elevator per rail station. And that's going to be a hot commodity. So one thing we asked was, on the stairs, have a little channel. Basically it's just a flat little, just a little like three inches of flatness. And that allows for you to roll your bike up. So instead of having to shoulder it, it's a little more bearable physically to roll it up. So it's still not going to work for everyone. Some people might still need to go on the elevator because of the weight of their bike and just their own physical abilities. But it's going to help. And that's a really minor thing that I'm happy to say, a heart is as integrated. And of course, the other thing is realistic, if we do see a lot of people biking to the rail station, it's not going to be best practice for us to have everyone taking their bike in the rail station. So one thing that's really happening is bike parking at the stations. Not just Hart, but the city, Department of Transportation Services, working with Hart, has been pursuing getting secured bike parking. Because if you're leaving a bike in the same place, every day, that's the no-no of securing your bike. I'm glad you're bringing it up because a lot of bicycles are very protective. They spend a lot of money on their bicycles, a lot of money. So that question of security and kind of not a guarantee of security, but the illusion or the hope that if I do leave my bike there, it's not going to be vandalized and it's not going to be stolen. So I'm curious on how you guys are how hard is addressing that. So what's going to be done is that most stations, space permitting, there'll be a sort of cage, a locker, where it'll have capacity for anywhere between 20 and maybe 80 bikes, something like that. And a limited number of people have the key to that. And they'll also lock their bike within there. So you'll have a normal bike rack, you'll lock your bike, but the fact that only a limited number of people can get in there is really going to limit the opportunity for theft. So yeah, these proven to be effective in other big cities where bike theft is a problem. You limit that number of people and then of course, if a bike gets stolen and only 20 people have the key, you can go and ask them, hey, what's the story here? Well, I think you're addressing a real concern and I think addressing that up front with the biking community will lend a lot of success when the rail lines first start to open up. So if anyone wants to check it out. So as a pilot, the city has installed one at the Middle Street Transit Center. So it's currently only for bus. It'll eventually be both a rail and they've installed a bike locker there. It hasn't went into full operation yet. It's basically meant as a pilot just to see how it works, to see if bike theft is an issue, to see if it's basically work out all the kinks. So if anyone wants to check it out, you can go there and at least have a look from the exterior and see what we're thinking. Well, great. And with that, we're going to take a break. This is Hawaii Moving Forward. We'll be right back. I'm Stan Energyman and I want you to be here every Friday. Noon. ThinkTekHawaii.com. Watch the show. Be there. I pity the fool who ain't. Aloha. My name is Reg Baker and I'm the host of Business in Hawaii with Reg Baker. We're a show that broadcasts live every Thursday from 2 to 2.30. We highlight success stories in Hawaii of both businesses and individuals. We learn their secrets to success which is always valuable. I hope to see you on our next show. Aloha. Aloha. How you doing? Welcome to Ibaachi Talk. I'm here at Gordo the Tech Star on ThinkTekHawaii. I'm here with my good old buddy, Andrew, the security guy. Hey everybody, how you doing? Aloha. Good to have Andrew here in the house. Please join us every Friday from 1 to 1.30 and follow us up on YouTube. And remember as we say at the end of every show, how you doing? How you doing? Welcome back. I'm Tim Apachello. This is Hawaii Moving Forward. I'm here with Daniel Alexander. He's the director for Hawaii Bicycling League. Welcome back. Thank you. I had a question about what policies and practices do you think are necessary to put in place to further the advocacy of bicycling in Hawaii? So I think we already have one really big policy in place, our complete streets policy. And basically that says that we should be building our roads, maintaining our roads, designing new roads in a way that accommodates all users. Not just cars, but also people walking, people biking, transit, those are disabilities. And so that really has been instrumental in changing a lot of projects and a lot of the way we're doing things over recent years. So it was passed to the city level in 2012. Some of the other things I think we need, obviously stuff costs money. And you go through our budgeting process and it's always a challenge trying to get budgeting to, say, build a new bikeway. And if you look to our plans, our Hawaii Bike Plan, we're not near meeting the objectives. Nowhere, nowhere near for what it lays out where we're supposed to accomplish in five and 10 years. To what degree are we not hitting those marks? I'll say by a significant amount. To find significant. So I give you an idea. There are three priority levels within our Bike Plan and the first one was supposed to be done within 10 years. Okay. And so it was 2012 and it was passed. So we're four years into phase one. Okay. So what we should be accomplishing all of it in six years. Small steps, right? Yeah. So we've accomplished a relatively small amount. But we are making big. I don't want to do as a disservice. Right. There's a lot of action underway. And one really great thing that we're doing now is repaving. When we go and repave a road, there's the option to put down the stripes where you want basically. And it's not going to cost any differently. If you go and you restripe a road, it's going to cost you money. But if you pave the road and you want to change the configuration a little bit, it doesn't cost you anything. So what we're doing now and we're doing it pretty well is seeking those opportunities for, hey, we can narrow those lanes a little bit and we can get in a bike lane. Or maybe we need to reconfigure this road. It's not servicing the area well. We can make it safe for people walking and we can make it safer for people biking. So yeah, I think that's one big thing. Can you differentiate the difference between safe streets and minimum grid? Or is there a difference? Okay. So minimum grid is a Hawaii Biscuit and League campaign to get a network of protected bike ways around the island. So when you talk to what we call the potential cyclists, a lot of them what they need for them to be able to bicycle is either a protected bike lane like we have on King Street or it's a multi-use path. It's a separate bike path. And so what we've been pushing for is more than bike lanes that we want a network of these protected bike ways and that that's really what's going to make it possible for us to realize having a lot of people feeling comfortable and using their bikes a lot for not just recreation but also to get places for kids to be able to get to school. I mean, most parents don't feel comfortable with their kids riding on the road even with a bike lane. They want that separate environment. So what we're really trying to do is embed that idea and raise awareness of how important it is that we seek this network of protected bike ways. And just on the broader note of safe streets, protected bike lanes, while they're primarily an intervention for bicyclists, they have a lot of benefits for pedestrians too. When you put these things in you realize suddenly the sidewalk gets a lot safer because drivers are a lot more responsive in looking for these active users, these vulnerable users, people walking and people biking. So when we talk about the King Street bike lane, that's not a bike lane. Is that a safe lane? And I want to talk about some of the things that have been written up in the editorials and some a lot of controversy came about when it first opened. So King Street, I think, is a giant leap forward. It is a billion times safer than what was there before. Right. And feeling of safety has just increased so much. It's not perfect. The reality is that street has a lot of driveways. And each of those is an interaction point and it requires an attentiveness on the part of the drivers and on a part of the bicyclists to, at those interaction points, sort through that interaction in a safe way. So it's inherently imperfect. Right. But I think given the conditions we're working with, it is a very positive thing. Would you prefer that the bike traffic would go in one direction and then maybe Mauritania have another direction? Would that be preferable or do you support the bi-directional pathways for bicyclists? So I think, you know, it's all context. But I think in the case of King Street, the two-way makes sense. And partly that's just on a one-way street. So the types of interactions are different. So there's only, you know, when you're, say, making a left off of King Street, you're not crossing any vehicular conflicting traffic. So there's a lot less for you to think about. So you can think a little bit more about those bicyclists crossing going two directions. And then, of course, pedestrian's going two directions. I think that's what I've heard from motorists that they don't realize that it is bi-directional. They're looking to the right as they're making that left turn and they're not thinking that, oh, they're coming in both directions. So that's kind of my attention. I don't know if that's been addressed with a city or not. So it opened us one way. And that was partly to sort of get people used to it. It was already a change. Right. Give them a chance to get used to it. And then it was converted into two-way. And I think driver attentiveness has went way up. And I think a lot of that occurred when it was just one way because people were like, oh, OK, there's bicyclists on the other side of these parked cars. I really need to think about that. You know, there were some safety measures that were taken. So a few parking spots were removed that were limited line of sight for people making lefts. OK. And so it just allows people to more clearly see. Yeah. So we haven't seen any major safety issues. Not that it's been without anything. Right. But it's, when you think, we've more than doubled the amount of people biking in there. That's great. That's good. There's nowhere near double the amount of accidents occurring. Yeah. So it is safer, I think, the numbers will pan out. Let's talk about some political realities. And that is, for every bike lane, it's certainly the significance of King Street. What's the political reality or the pushback if you're trying to sacrifice some general purpose lane? How did that happen? How did people to say, OK, we're going to give up general purpose traffic lane for this bike lane? Walk me through that because that sounds like a monumental task. So just to get to the bottom of one thing. Yeah. So perceptions are one thing, but data is another thing. OK. So in rush hour, in afternoon rush hour, four, four to five, what's been observed is a 30 to 45 second additional delay over the two miles of King Street. If you drove all the way from Olapai Street, all the way to Eisenberg, almost to the UH, you're going to, during that rush hour time experience, it's going to take you 30 to 45 seconds longer. Across that entire, it's a very small delay that has occurred. But it is perception. I think some people have perceived this much more. But the data is the data. Yeah. So I think we just need to put it in that context. Yeah, a lane was repurposed. There was a general purpose lane. Right. Into a bike-only lane. But the traffic impact, I think, has been relatively minor. And I think when it comes down to, we're trying to build a world in which people have transportation options. And that means there's going to be some trade-offs in that process. I think part of the reason we did it on King and say, not on Baratania, was our Department of Transportation looked at it and said, where can we achieve this and not have much traffic impact? So maybe people aren't giving our Transportation Department credit because we could have sought this on Baratania. And it might have, I don't know exactly, but I'm just saying. So how do your conversations go when you talk to the transit folks and they're going, oh, we sure could use a transit-only bus lane. And we only have so many general purpose lanes that we can little back on. So how do those conversations go, or do they go? So I think transit and bikes, as we were talking earlier, they're kind of a match made in heaven. But certainly when you look at very specific examples, there might be conflicts. So my understanding from the bus books is they haven't actually experienced any delay associated with King. So we do, I think, need to think about where we have transit priority ways. You know, as we move forward with rail and we start thinking about how that is going to integrate within the full system, I think bus rapid transit is going to make a lot of sense. And that means reserving lanes for bus. So we need to start thinking about our network and where it makes sense to do that. On what corridors? On what corridors, yeah. I'm going to agree. So I think ultimately if we think about it from a multimodal perspective, and I was trying to move to giving people more transportation options, ultimately if we benefit bikes and we're benefiting transit, we're going to end up with a better functioning system on the whole. If we can get people out of their cars and where they're using these other modes. I mean, if you look to other examples like Vancouver is a great case. I know it's in Canada, with intention what they've done over time is they've made it where 50% of their trips are by walk, bike, transit. Yeah? Into the central business district? In the city of Vancouver. In the city of Vancouver, they've made it where 50% of their trips. Where do they start out? Do you know? I'm not sure what their starting point was, but it's been through intention over the years. And, you know, they have a transit, their rail system, ours is actually modeled on it. So there are some things I think that we're going to look into in other cases. And I think we have to see these multimodal options as integrated. Yeah? And that's where we're going to see the big wins. So, you know, like for example, the whole rail conversation we have, when we start to make those connections, that's where we're going to see the greatest utility, both in the transit, in the bikeway and everything. We're going to get the biggest bang for our buck and the most transportation options for our residents. Okay, great. Well, I hate to say this, but we're starting to wind down in our time here today. And I've got a whole page of questions I haven't asked you. So I'm hoping that you will come back again and help us out, understand what you're doing and how you're doing it and give us an update on progress. So thank you very much for coming. Yeah, nice conversation, I really. And thank you for joining us. Important stuff here. I'm Tim Apachella. This is Hawaii Moving Forward. And we'll see you next week. Thank you.