Honolulu Driving and Parking

Driving and parking here is crazy!!!! I said this in one of my earlier posts, but it seems as if the roads were an afterthought. And now the city isn't quite sure how to fix the problem and so they improvise. It does help that most Hawaiians are extremely relaxed and kind drivers. For example, our street is not wide enough to have two lanes of traffic and accommodate street parking. So everyone, I am not sure if its a written or a courtesy rule, parks on one side of the road so that cars can still get down the street.

On the street adjacent to us, the street is barely wide enough for two cars to pass each other with all the parked cars are on one side. So when we go down that street, we, or the other driver, moves in between parked cars so the other car can pass with no problem.

Then there is some main roads where during rush hour, a group of cone experts come and place cones down every morning and afternoon. (http://archives.starbulletin.com/1999/08/24/news/story4.html)  In the afternoon, I think it's around 3:30 and then they're picked up around 6:30. At least near me, they put cones down on one side of the road, to "widen" the other side. So if it is a 6 lane road, 3 lanes on one side and 3 lanes on the other side. Between those hours it becomes 4 and 2. Also during rush hour those same city workers will put cones up so you can't turn left. And for me where I live, I need to turn left to get to the beach. So I have to go way around so I can turn right to go to our favorite beach. Which leads to my next point.

There is a constant lack of left hand turn lanes. Because again the streets are not wide enough for the amount of cars that pass by, so there are many times, no left hand turn lanes. For example, a 4 lane road, 2 lanes for each direction, will not have a left turn lane so the person that has to turn left just turns on his blinker and waits till he can turn left. That sometimes leads to a huge pile up in left lane as this one person is waiting or oncoming traffic to stop so he can turn left. So if you are thinking, fine, I'll just drive in the right lane and avoid the left turn lane problems Well, without warning, the right lane can turn into a parking lane and you have to suddenly get over because between during certain hours, on different streets, people can park on the street, yes even busy streets.

And there are a lot of one way streets. I am so grateful for our smartphone's GPS because it calculates those one way streets, so even if it looks like it is taking me the wrong way, I follow it because it knows better than me. Although I did get my first ticket last week for using my GPS on my phone, because Hawaii is a "hands-free" state. We'll see if I can fight and win it! I hope, I hope, I hope!

Parking here is crazy!! They are tiny parking stalls and a lot of parallel parking (something I defiantly need to improve upon). Every day Haans and I are grateful we got a SMALL SUV. We can not imagine driving around in anything much bigger. Though there are plenty of people driving bigger cars, Haans and I are grateful ours is small.

You generally have to pay a meter if you park on the side of the busy roads, so I have gotten use to carrying quarters around just for parking Also there are a lot of parking structures. Walmart and Sam's Club for example got to together and Walmart is on the 1st floor and Sam's club is on the 2nd floor and their stores are attached to their parking structure, so depending what store you want to go to, you park accordingly. I went to Ross today and it has a parking structure that is shared with an apartment complex, so I had to get my parking voucher stamped so I could prove I was in Ross and not have to pay.

So morale of this blog: there are a lot of unwritten and written driving rules. Haans and I are trying quickly to learn them all. But like I said at the beginning, luckily most Hawaiian drivers are kind and relaxed drivers. If you are trying to get out of a parking lot and onto a busy street, drivers usually let you in. If you have to merge quickly (because all of a sudden your lane turns into street parking), drivers will let you in. If you accidently bump another's car, well "Aloha, it's fine", it just adds to my collection of other dents. (We say this our first week at church. One church member ran into another member's car and they both looked at the dent and said, "OK," and continued on) So naturally there are a bunch of cars with nice dents and scratches on them. And if you are buying a car here, watch out for comments like, "a little cosmetic damage." It just might mean the whole side was side swiped by another car.

But don't let this blog scare you from driving in Honolulu. Just be a weary and a cautious driver while here! And besides after reading this post, you'll know more than you did before. Aloha