After yesterday’s preliminary look through the city’s data portal (data.honolulu.com), I decided to take a closer look at the database of abandoned vehicles reported to the city. Why? It just made me curious.
So what are the favorite locations to dump vehicles? The answers may surprise you.
Here are the streets that showed up most often as the dumping spot for abandoned vehicles during the period of 2007 through the present.
The position at the top of the list doesn’t go to some low income neighborhood. The #1 spot goes to Hunakai Street in Kahala, which runs from Kilauea Avenue by Wilson School, past Kahala Mall, and all the way makai to Kahala Avenue.
In the second spot is Auiki Street in lower Kalihi, more your stereotypical spot to drop a car.
I’ve listed the top 25 locations.
| Abandoned Vehicles | |
| 2007 to 2016 | |
| Street Name | Number |
| HUNAKAI ST | 1738 |
| AUIKI ST | 761 |
| LIHOLIHO ST | 704 |
| KEWALO ST | 601 |
| 10TH AVE | 597 |
| LIME ST | 577 |
| 21ST AVE | 568 |
| ALA NAPUAA PL | 543 |
| KAONOHI ST | 540 |
| NOELANI ST | 537 |
| KAHUHIPA ST | 493 |
| MAKIKI ST | 491 |
| LIKINI ST | 488 |
| MCNEILL ST | 479 |
| KAAHUMANU ST | 458 |
| KOAUKA LP | 458 |
| MAUNAIHI PL | 454 |
| KAM HWY | 453 |
| KAM HWY | 443 |
| PROSPECT ST | 441 |
| CASTLE ST | 439 |
| HALEKULA WAY | 418 |
| ALEXANDER ST | 416 |
| KUAKINI ST (NORTH) | 412 |
| ALA ALII ST |
Then I checked whether the latest numbers are different from the whole period.
It turns out they are pretty comparable.
For the period from January 1, 2015 through mid-January 2016, the top two spots are reversed. Auiki Street is #1, and Hunakai #2.
Here are the top 25 in the latest period.
| Location of abandoned cars – | |
| January 1, 2015 to present | |
| Street | Number |
| AUIKI ST | 372 |
| HUNAKAI ST | 281 |
| 21ST AVE | 228 |
| MCNEILL ST | 199 |
| LIHOLIHO ST | 159 |
| LIME ST | 131 |
| ISENBERG ST | 123 |
| ALA NAPUAA PL | 114 |
| PROSPECT ST | 107 |
| KEWALO ST | 104 |
| ALA WAI BLVD | 102 |
| HASSINGER ST | 99 |
| MACHADO ST | 97 |
| 10TH AVE | 91 |
| PUOWAINA DR | 81 |
| PIIKOI ST | 80 |
| DREIER ST | 79 |
| KAM HWY | 74 |
| MAKIKI ST | 71 |
| LIKINI ST | 70 |
| KALANI ST | 67 |
| KOAUKA LP | 60 |
| ALA NAPUNANI | 59 |
| CORAL ST | 58 |
| LILIPUNA RD | |
This should be the starting point for some reporting. What accounts for these favorite spots for abandoned cars? How many abandoned cars turn out to be stolen? Lots of questions could be drawn out of these data.
Just an example of how public data can stimulate curiosity.
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The high number of abandoned vehicles reported for Hunakai Street may also reflect area residents’ willingness to phone in a complaint to HPD when they see unfamiliar vehicles parked in the same spot for more than 24 hours.
High density and not much street parking = residents much more likely to report their neighbors for breaking parking laws. If you don’t move your car every 24 hours in my neighborhood expect to have your car reported as abandoned.
@wlsc:
Now THAT’S an example of analyzing data beyond the surface. Well done!
As a side note, I find it sadly ironic that many people think that today’s generation of young people are supposedly more environmentally conscious and educated than their parents and grandparents. In certain ways, they are. But despite all that they learn in school and on TV about taking care of the Earth, recycling, etc., basic things like abandoned cars and the dumping of appliances and other bulky material on the side of the road is worse than it ever has been. This is not the Hawaii I grew up in. In between all the messages about putting what type of waste in the proper container and lectures about countries needing to cut down on carbon emissions, very basic values like properly disposing of waste doesn’t seem to have been instilled with a few folks.
Tight parking, frequent visitors, snitchy neighbors, multiple vehicles per family equals complaints but not necessarily real abandoned vehicles. Look for those around Sand Island and the Makaha end of Farrington Highway. And if a neighbor leaves a non-running heap in front of your place, the “enforcers” won’t do shit after he rolls it five inches so the tire chalk marks don’t line up. It’s there until the registration expires.
Just curious why a street in Kalihi would be labeled as a “more your stereotypical spot” to abandon a vehicle?
Cars parked on Ala Wai get towed very quickly. I wonder if “abandoned” here often means “can’t afford the impound fee”.
Abandoned cars in my Makiki neighborhood are often stripped. I suspect they are stolen cars, perhaps stripped for parts or used in drug transactions to avoid having the drug runners’ own cars impounded. It seems unlikely that they are stripped and left on streets in my neighborhood so often by owners themselves. That would mean a lot of owners using the same MO!
Does anyone have information on how one disposes of a non-running vehicle legally?
You might call the Kidney Foundation and see if they will accept a non-running vehicle as a donation.
“Been There” wrote:
“Does anyone have information on how one disposes of a non-running vehicle legally?”
The C&C will handle removal of a vehicle you want to junk, provided some some conditions are met. Click on the link below for Honolulu’s application and info.
https://www.honolulu.gov/rep/site/csd/onlineforms/cslmvr202.pdf
As for the Kidney Foundation,… good luck trying to get them to take a non-running car off your hands. They’re actually quite selective about what they will accept.
It’s worth the call to the Kidney Foundation. They took my FIL’s car when it wasn’t running due to being in need of a brake job. We later saw it at Kapi’olani park, with, we hope, new brakes.
Cash 4 Cars (google it) will pick up and tow your car and tive you cash for it ($300 or so). I used them a couple of years ago and it was GREAT!