Fact: Honolulu is the most lane deficient metropolitan area in the U.S. It is far inferior to San Juan, Puerto Rico, which is the second worse metro area. There is no substitute for road capacity. One can add express buses and railroads, but without key road widening projects, some underpasses, intelligent transportation system applications and a Leeward Oahu to town expressway, there will be no reduction in congestion and no growth in the Ewa plains as planned.

Myths about roadways promulgated by the Mayor himself.

• 1. Roads put more cars on the road. No! New roads always reduce congestion. The H-3 freeway and the Kalanianaole Hwy. widening improved traffic conditions. The number of private vehicles has exceeded the number of licensed drivers for over 10 years now. Please refer to Census reports. A driver can only drive one vehicle at a time. All excess vehicles remain parked.

• 2. Roads create traffic congestion where they end. No! A properly engineered expressway will distribute its traffic to many employment and trip centers such as (starting from Waikele) Aiea, Aloha Stadium, Pearl Harbor, H-3, Airport and Mapunapuna, Kalihi and Iwilei. For example a proper off-ramp will terminate in the median of Lagoon Drive or Waiakamilo Street and discharge traffic without a left turn light that takes for ever to serve traffic with a single left turn lane. Traffic congestion is a traffic engineering issue, but little traffic engineering has been applied on Oahu and in the City’s AA. Only if, say, an additional 1,000 jobs are created in downtown will an additional ~800 vehicles will come to downtown. Same with Kalihi, etc. There is little evidence, that there will be any substantial job growth on Oahu. Population grew only by 4.8% between 1990 and 2000. Tourism grew by a tiny 0.6% per year in the last 15 years. Agriculture keeps shrinking. Military is stable at best. Where is the job growth that will generate the million plus of new trips that are forecast in the City’s study? Also, new jobs, U.H.-West Oahu and retail development in Ewa will reduce the need for travel to Honolulu.

• 3. The cost of $8 to ride is too high for our working families. Yes! This guess was made by the City’s administration. Tolls may have to be this high on SR-91 in a city of 15 million, Los Angeles, where demand for speedy travel is huge. There is no such demand on Oahu. The base toll on the Managed Lanes will be on average $4 or less during peak commute times, and $1-$2 during off-peak. Indeed some folks may be unable to pay any toll, but they will also benefit from a HOT expressway because traffic at H-1/H-2 merge will be about 20% lighter so they will save ~15 minutes on H-1 freeway. By my estimates, a 3-lane Managed Lane is the only alternative that can come close to providing 2030 traffic conditions that will be comparable to current conditions. Rail will increase congestion. Even at a fantastic 10 percent share, for every 1,000 new trips, 900 will be made by car.

Metro rail facts (by definition Honolulu plans for a heavy rail system like those in Atlanta, Miami, San Francisco and Washington, D.C.):

• Rail’s cost and tax bill will cause the economy to shrink. Increasing a regressive tax is not a way to promote growth.

• Exploding congestion will make freight and tourism operations more expensive and increasingly less competitive.
• The aging of the baby boomers will reduce trips and reduce dependency on rail which goes to too few places and requires cumbersome transfers for the elderly and the handicapped.

• Rail technology will be all imported, expensive and difficult to operate.

• Some talk about freeway closures due to crashes or calamities. You must visualize the reality of breaking down trains with nowhere to go, let alone suicides, terrorism and power outages.

• History will repeat itself in Honolulu: Upon rail’s start, it will carry 2% of trips and most of them will be from TheBus.

Part II – Six Points Why Rail is an Undesirable Alternative

• 1: Rail does not fit our Hawaiian sense of place. It will hurt Oahu's tourism image and appeal. Tourists visit Hawaii to escape the mainland metropolis cityscape.

• 2: Rail will take lanes from streets in Honolulu and its construction between Iwilei and the University of Hawaii will be at least a two year nightmare.

• 3: Rail will be a subsidized service, which will compete directly with existing private transportation businesses. Using public funds to put companies out of business is illegal.

• 4: Neither the community nor the private sector have been substantially consulted as required by the Federal Transit Administration.

• 5: Rail is the least convenient urban transportation alternative for the elderly and the handicapped.

• 6: High Occupancy/Toll (HOT) lanes are a superior high capacity transit alternative that can be outfitted to serve express guided buses. All buses and vanpools go free at all times.

Part III – A Significant Disadvantage of Any Rail Alternative

Any large transportation project is built in segments. People who testified at City Council hearings suggested that, if rail was the chosen alternative, then the first segment would connect Kalihi with Ala Moana Shopping Center. Then gradually expand to Airport or Salt Lake, Aiea, etc. to LCC and Kapolei. For example, if the HOT expressway is selected, then the first operating segment would be the Nimitz Viaduct from Keehi Interchange to Iwilei, which would take less than a year to complete and will provide an instant five minute or better reduction in travel time for all H-1 Freeway motorists in peak periods.

Not so for Rail. Rail cannot operate without an extensive rail yard. The nearest rail yard is Ewa of LCC. So the first operating segments of rail would be serving so little traffic, e.g., LCC to Aiea, that it would actually be cheaper to not operate it for the first couple of years and save the huge operating costs. The tiny (2 percent) relief from Rail will start in 2015 at the very earliest.

Part IV – Why Would Nobody Debate Rail on Channel 2 News?

The Channel 2 News (KHON) had an agreement with the League of Women voters to air a one hour special debate between two rail proponents and two managed lanes (or reversible HOT expressway) proponents on Wednesday, Dec. 20, between 7 and 8 PM. Mr. Cliff Slater and I agreed to be the HOT proponents and never wavered in our commitment.

The League of Women Voters sent a letter to the mayor and he did not reply for six calendar days. When called, Bill Brennan said the letter had set no deadline, although the broadcast date should have shown them that a prompt reply was needed. LWV had to set a deadline of later that day, which Brennan stretched to as late as possible. It was not possible to reach City Chief Planner Toru Hamayasu and Parsons Brinkerhoff project manager Mark Scheibe because of the lateness in the day. When LWV reached them the following day, they refused. Kyle Chock of the Pacific Resource Partnership had requested to be on the panel, but when LWV invited him, he refused because the mayor would not be on. Councilman Gary Okino accepted, but reneged two days later.

See related story: "Honolulu Needs a Respectable Analysis Report to Help Honolulu Make the Right Decision About Mass Transit"

Panos D. Prevedouros, PhD is the President of the Hawaii Highway Users Alliance. Reach him via email at mailto:panosdp@gmail.com

HawaiiReporter.com reports the real news, and prints all editorials submitted, even if they do not represent the viewpoint of the editors, as long as they are written clearly. Send editorials to mailto:Malia@HawaiiReporter.com

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