Will THIS plan yield a more pedestrian friendly Maui?

We attended this free workshop about improving Maui’s environment for pedestrians, bicycles and residents, “You Can Help Make a Better Maui,” from 11 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. last Friday (11/21/14) in Wailuku. The event was hosted by Sandy McGuinness of Maui County Nutrition & Physical Activity Coalition, (NPAC) and Marivil Fabregas of AARP Hawai’i. Here is link to entire plan:  http://www.npacmaui.com/images/Built-Environment/CMPlan%20FINAL%20July%202012.pdf 

Charlene Shibuya, an NPAC board member, senior planner at Munekiyo & Hiraga and retired state Department of Transportation assistant district engineer/construction engineer, presented “What are Complete Streets and Why Are They Important?” and Erin Wade, Maui County Planning Department small-town planner, discussed priorities and focus areas for Wailuku improvements.

Even though it had little to do with our area, we felt much of the material can be applied to ours, in out unending quest for a walkable-bikeable community for South Maui.

While we felt the uproarious oral protest by two Wailuku senior residents antics were in the wrong place, we could identify with their concern that there seem to be countless plans of this nature with minimal actual results. While we hear the frequent government communications continually using the familiar terms, complete streets, a walkable/bikeable community, pedestrian safety for keiki and kupuna, safe routes to school, etc. , in the real world of today we presently see the HDOT doing roadway improvement in N Kihei see https://gokihei.org/development-project-review/why-no-sidewalks-again-seems-all-talk-and-no-walk and a portion on long awaited N-S Collector road in S. Kihei , see https://gokihei.org/environment/some-positive-news-about-the-n-s-collector-road with no sidewalks and no segregated bicycle paths.