Walk, Don’t Walk to the new high school in North Kihei on Monday

This afternoon the RRFB flashing yield signal is activated at the push of a button

8/3/23  #kihei    Were you at the general membership meeting in March when newly elected Mayor Bissen announced the solution to allowing the new high school to open this month?  Because the State Dept. of Education (DOE) flat out refused for a decade to comply with the binding condition to provide a grade separated pedestrian crossing (GSPC), either over or under the Pi’ilani Hwy before opening the school, our community found itself with a new school that could not open for our students.

The mayor announced no one would be permitted to walk across the highway at the school entrance. But this afternoon (8/3/23), four days before school opens, it sure looks like a pedestrian crossing remains at the roundabout.  All the signs remain in place, the activation button for the Rectangular Rapid Flashing Beacon (RRFB) illuminates all the flashing yellow lights on all the signs.  The only obstacle is this quasi- barrier:

Do you think high school kids may just ignore this, push the button and try to walk across the highway?

It seems prudent that the powers that be may want to have security personnel in place to insure safety.

Meanwhile, we observed for several minutes how the vehicle interaction functioned. Granted this was not a peak time, but the function was obvious when signals changed at the nearest intersections. Ohukai opened up the southbound flow and we saw 2 tractor trailers sweep safely through in right lane with cars in tandem in the left. We watched a northbound car continue around the roundabout to head west on Kulanihao’i as southbound traffic immediately yielded as he proceed.

Southbound traffic flowed smoothly through the roundabout

But when we pressed the pedestrian button and the voice announced that the beacons were flashing, we seemed to be the only ones aware as we never saw any driver react to the pedestrians. Granted, this is simply a yellow yield signal, and drivers do not have to take any action unless there is someone to yield to, we could only hope every driver saw the yellow lights in the bright sunshine and were prepared to yield.