HONOLULU -- KITV's investigation of Honolulu citations found several spots where the number of tows indicates a persistent problem.

KITV examined three years of towing citations and a computer analysis of about 10,000 citations.

The street with the most tows was King Street, five miles of heavily-traveled roadway with hundreds of parking stalls that must be vacated at rush hour.

In the first six months of the year, there were more than 300 cars towed from King Street.

The street that came in a close second was Halekauwila Street, which is next to the state Circuit Court building and unemployment office. Despite a tow zone of only 12 parking spaces long, the location generated more than 240 tows in six months.

Other towing hot spots include Bethel Street downtown and Cooke Street, where there are at least a couple of tows a day, and Makaloa Street near Keeaumoku Street.

The tow zones are designed by city engineers to reduce rush-hour congestion.

It is just after 3:30 p.m., on Halekauwila Street next to the courthouse. At tow time, trucks swoop in. Within minutes, four cars are gone, including a van with a dog.

A few minutes later, the dog owner, who was at the nearby unemployment office, looked baffled. The owner said he was worried about his dog and his van.

The 12-space parking zone at Halekauwila Street and Punchbowl Street is the island's biggest tow trap. Nearly as many cars were towed there as on the entire five-mile length of King Street. On the day of this towing, rush-hour towing designed to improve traffic flow did not.

The police waived the tow truck away from two cars, which means even though all the other cars were towed away the lane was still blocked.

City traffic engineers decided Halekauwila Street needed two eastbound lanes at rush hour to prevent a backup at South Street. However, even when it is cleared of cars no one uses the opened lane. So is the towing necessary?

A city engineer said there is no regular review of tow zones to see if they work as intended or are still necessary. Police assign just a handful of officers to enforce the zones. When they do not have other calls they follow a regular route and said they do not analyze the affect on traffic.