IT’S NO GAME; PLEASE SLOW DOWN!

Every few days, I drive past the speed radar stand located on the corner of Honoapiilani Highway and Prison Street to try and match its Broadway flash to my speedometer at exactly 35 mph. It’s a safe, little game to play while on the road — sort of like making up names from licenses plates.

The only problem is that I can’t seem to make it happen. Instead, it goes wildly Vegas with “SLOW DOWN” blinking rapid fire at 41 MPH, 48 and even 51!

Whaaa?? I’m driving 35! Maybe I should move over to the passing lane, where it seems to have its eye focused.

Speeding is no game, folks. Please slow down.

ELAINE GALLANT, Lahaina

MAKE SURE EVENT LISTINGS ARE CORRECT

For the last three years, I have used the LahainaTown Action Committee website’s Events Calendar for local events. It has always been accurate in the past.

I checked the website and saw the Kamehameha Day Parade down for Saturday, June 11, at 10 a.m. As of this writing, it states the same date.

After coordinating our schedules — my husband works two jobs, as many of us do here on Maui — and after packing up the family (including a little one under one-year-old), we drove down to Lahaina only to sit for one-and-a-half hours waiting for a parade that never came.

I continued to check their website from my phone while we were down there, thinking I made a mistake on the date or the time. Then I called their “hotline,” and there was no mention of the parade at all.

Then we walked up and down Front Street checking with the restaurants, and they all said, “Yes, the parade is today.”

We waited and waited and chatted with others also waiting for the parade that never came. Time off from work and spent with family is very precious, so we were very disappointed we wasted our time.

I called and e-mailed the LahainaTown Action Committee and never got a response. I would like an explanation, please.

If the parade was canceled or rescheduled, why didn’t the LahainaTown Action Committee update their website? Is it really that difficult, and does it really take that much time? And why didn’t the local businesses get informed? I guess I need to use a more reliable source for Lahaina’s events.

TAMMY BREHIO-DOLACINSKI, Honokowai

DRIVERS CONFUSED ABOUT RIGHT OF WAY AT INTERSECTION

Regarding the letter about the intersection of Hoohui Road and Honoapiilani Highway, as a resident of Kahana Ridge, I could not agree with you more.

You bring to light a situation that is long overdue. This intersection has been an issue for me for the ten years I have lived in Kahana Ridge for the exact reasons you wrote about.

I know who has the right of way, and I always yield to cars in the right turn lane opposite of my direction when I am attempting to turn left onto the highway, I also know many do not. One issue I have is that eight out of ten drivers in the right turn lane just sit there when the light turns green for them. I am in the left turn lane waiting for them to turn right, and they just sit there. On occasion, I will put my arm out my window and wave them on to make their turn.

Another issue we at Kahana Ridge have is waiting to turn left at a red light, and oncoming traffic waiting for the light do not signal they are turning left. Then they turn left without signaling, and your attention is turned to a car sitting in the right turn lane at a green light and not moving.

All of this adds to a bit of confusion and hesitation at that intersection. I never experience it anywhere else. In closing, the cars making a right turn have the right of way. Any car crossing traffic — the ones making the left turn — do NOT have the right of way.

ROBERT NEWELL, Kahana Ridge

YIELD SIGN HELPS GUIDE MOTORISTS

In response to the June 9 letter entitled “A Traffic Lesson,” in which Kahana Ridge residents were scolded for making left turns in front of oncoming traffic, several Kahana Ridge residents would like to point out a flaw in the author’s argument.

He or she is correct in stating that oncoming traffic has the right-of-way against left-turning traffic, and hopefully all makai-bound drivers on Hoohui Road understand and yield as required.

However, the author failed to mention (or possibly notice) the yield sign that exists in the right-turn lane for vehicles bound for Lahaina.

The yield sign is only for the right-turn lane, and according to Hawaii vehicle code 291C-63(c), “The driver of a vehicle approaching a yield sign shall… slow down to a speed reasonable for the existing conditions and, if required for safety to stop, shall stop… After slowing or stopping, the driver shall yield the right-of-way to any vehicle in the intersection or approaching on another highway… provided that if such a driver is involved in a collision with a vehicle in the intersection, after driving past a yield sign without stopping, the collision shall be deemed prima facie evidence of the driver’s failure to yield right-of-way.”

It seems clear to us that the left-turning traffic at this particular intersection has the right of way over the right-turning traffic, which is restricted by the yield sign.

NAME WITHHELD BY REQUEST

PROTECT HONOLUA BAY

Protect forever Lipoa Point and mauka areas — a total of approximately 580 acres around the Marine Life Conservation District — that were previously slated for development from commercial interests.

West Maui is over 300 acres short on park space.

The community has made it clear: no development in Honolua with over 16,000 signatures on the petition and countless heartfelt testimonies.

Many have called Honolua the strongest social movement they have ever seen on Maui.

The West Maui General Plan calls specifically for the preservation of Honolua.

In the episodic event of 2005, runoff from Honolua Ridge construction had a devastating effect on Honolua Bay. According to the state Department of Aquatic Resources, coral cover has declined from 42 to 9 percent in ten years in The Bay. Honolua simply can’t survive more development.

WYNN MILLER, Los Angeles, California

LEAVE THE HONOLUA AREA UNDEVELOPED

I just received an e-mail from the Rell Sunn Educational Fund regarding possible development of Honolua Bay. To say the least, I was shocked; even talking about development to one of the last pristine coastlines in Maui is nothing short of a crime.

I was a resident of Maui’s west shore from 1978 to 1980. I loved the old town of Lahaina — it had such original character. I spent my days off from work bodysurfing at Slaughter House, which only a few tourists knew about. If there weren’t any waves to surf, I would spend hours snorkeling the crystal clear waters and colorful coral reefs, while my dog swam circles around me. Those are fond memories I will never forget.

I continue visiting Maui every year, but I only stay on the North Shore in Pukalani. I rarely ever drive over to West Maui, as it breaks my heart to see what Lahaina has been turned into — a crazy tourist trap of cookie-cutter shops and chain restaurants. All the old charm of Lahaina is now history.

I still feel Honolua Bay offers the best snorkeling on the island. However, the gridlock traffic between Lahaina and Kapalua has made this trip unbearable. And now you are trying to make a bad situation even worse by developing Lipoa Point?

Maui needs to protect what little open space it has left, especially on the coast. Lipoa Point and mauka areas surround the Marine Life Conservation District.

Though I live in California, I’m fully aware that a development will not only pollute the ocean, but will add more congestion to an already choked, single-lane highway. Where will the development get its water? That is a whole other issue that needs to be addressed.

Do not develop Lipoa Point or anything north of there. Leave that area preserved, so future generations can enjoy the unspoiled beauty that Maui is, or was, known for.

KATHY KLOSSNER, Cardiff by the Sea, California

THE REVOLUTION IS SET

The Revolution begins in October. Starting on Oct. 6, over 50 different populist organizations and 100,000 seasoned activists will take over Freedom Plaza in Washington, D.C., and not leave until our government divorces itself from Wall Street and stops our insane wars. This is America’s Tahrir Square moment. Hallelujah, the time has finally come.

When 66 percent of the people want single-payer health insurance, and 70 percent want out of the wars right now, and 93 percent want Wall Street fraudsters prosecuted (see mortgageticket.com/real-estate-market/americans-want-wall-street-bankers-prosecuted.html), yet our government continues to ignore us, we cannot claim to live in a democracy.

There is no reason to die in foreign wars defending a democracy in name only. Barack Obama will not even prosecute the Wall Street criminals who caused the financial meltdown, and who continue to rob our wealth through oil and commodities speculation. Instead, he’s hired more of them into the White House so they’ll give him money for his next election bid.

If you’ve had it with corporate sellout Obama, and had it with war, and had it with Wall Street, lend a hand. We can do this. Yes We Can. Go to october2011.org and get involved.

RICH ZUBATY, Wailuku