On Mother’s Day in May 2013, the neighborhood of Kaka‘ako in Honolulu had a “Hele On Kaka’ako” celebration and experienced Oahu’s second cyclovia, which closed many streets to motorized transportation. The success of the event came from the volunteers who dedicated time, energy, and hard work to create a complete street demonstration and opened up streets for play for the day and allowed people to experience a bike and pedestrian friendly street with outside spaces for people and businesses to use.
Cycle On Hawai‘i created the vision and support to implement the event. However, to make it happen, the event required an enormous amount of professional volunteer support. The National Park Service Rivers, Trails, and Conservation Assistance program worked with Cycle On Hawai’i, the Hawaii Chapter of the American Society of Landscape Architects (ASLA) and numerous organizations and volunteers to make the event possible.
Tireless landscape architects dedicated time, expertise, and contacts to turn a typical urban concrete street into a vibrant, bike and pedestrian friendly street. Collectively, these volunteers designed and installed parklettes, green infrastructure, mini traffic circles, and an urban food forest for the day. The event aimed to educate and inspire people to support healthy, sustainable community designs.
