Life on the Kam
Kamehameha Highway circles the island of O’ahu and is the primary junction for those in Laie to get to Honolulu and the east side. “Kam Hwy” (as us non-local haole-types tend to call it) has two very distinguishing traits:
- It is a very poorly designed highway
- It is an incredibly dangerous highway
When you you factor in these characteristics it pretty much means that you, the driver, are going to be incredibly bored waiting behind car after car going 25 miles per hour, or, having the time of your life zipping away on Kam’s curvey surface going 50-60 miles per hour.
The only real opportunity to do the later is late at night/early in the morning (11pm-4am). We’ve done races to Wal-Mart in the whee hours of the day and managed to get there within 25 minutes. It normally is a 45 minute drive.
A good chunk of the highway hugs the coast and is literally 10 feet from the ocean in places. The beauty of the island is so captivating that I sometimes find myself driving just to see the sights you can only see from Kamehameha Highway.
Unfortunately most of the time life on the Kam is downright tedious. Today my roommate and I were stuck behind a garbage truck. It took us 15 minutes to get to school when it normally only takes 3. Other times the danger combines with boredom. Just last week a van flipped over on a bridge about a hundred yards from my house (I live on Kam Hwy) and interrupted traffic for over 4 hours before the police finally had the vehicle moved.
Other times drunk drivers have crashed into poles (terminating electricity and internet for the better part of a day before being restored), driven into the ocean, rear-ended cars waiting to turn (been a victim of that myself), and, well, you get the idea.
There is no solution to rectify the existing problems with the road. And problems will only become more severe as parts of the two-lane road fall into disrepair. Thousands of people rely on the route to get from home to work and back, and with no other alternatives being viable the Hawaiians and tourists who frequent Kamehameha Hwy will be in for an increasingly bumpy ride.
Symbolic, isn’t it?
July 2nd, 2006 in Travel |
