ATI The Alliance for Traffic Improvement

Seeking cost effective ways to reduce traffic congestion on Oahu

BRT plan narrows lane widths

It will narrow a great majority of the lanes along its route. And bear in mind that tour buses are 10 feet 4 inches from mirror to mirror—for proof see below. Fire trucks are 10 feet 6 inches. Most lanes will be narrowed from 12 feet and 11 feet down to 10 feet. Most turning lanes will be narrowed to 9 feet.

For example, Kalakaua Avenue lanes will go from 11 feet plus now to 10 feet
Pohukaina's general traffic lanes are reduced from 14 feet to 10 feet.
Ala Moana Boulevard at the Prince Hotel to Kalia Road will narrow from 12-14 feet down to 10 feet.

[Note: The City  has commented (City Opposition to TRO, page 13) regarding Ala Moana Boulevard: "the existing two center 12 foot lanes on Ala Moana Boulevard will be reduced to 10 feet wide while the curbside lane will remain 14 feet. This change cannot result in irreparable harm to this Plaintiff because the existing center lanes elsewhere on Ala Moana Boulevard are well as parts of Nimitz Highway are already 10 feet wide.”
The fact is that private operators' buses can presently travel the full length of Ala Moana Boulevard to Kalakaua Avenue without once getting into a lane less than 12 feet wide (the curb lane to Ala Moana/Atkinson and thereafter any lane).
With the IOS lane restructuring, the City will force our 10 foot 4 inch wide tour buses going to Kalakaua (most of them) into 10-foot lanes for a considerable distance between Hobron Lane and Kalia Road.]

This ASHTO turning template below shows that a regular tour bus cuts a swath 22 feet wide at maximum turn.

The following page is from Creating Livable Streets: Street Design Guidelines for 2040. November 1997.

The width of a tour bus

We have been saying that the mirror-to-mirror width of a tour bus is ten feet four inches and the city folks have been saying we are all wet. So we  went out and measured the buses of one of our members, Polynesian Hospitality, and took photos so that no one can be in any doubt that we are right.

New tour buses have the standard maximum body width of 102 inches or 8 feet 6 inches. On top of that you have to add mirrors. The driver's side mirror is typically further out than the offside mirror. In the photos below you'll see that the drivers side mirror measured at right angles to the bus body is 13 inches out. The offside mirror was 9 inches out. That is a total of 22 inches, or 1 foot 10 inches,  to add to the 8 feet 6 inches body width. That is a total of 10 feet 4 inches as the mirror-to-mirror width of a tour bus.

Below, Reggie DiSilva, Operations Manager, Polynesian Hospitality, measures the driver's side mirror as shown above.