The answer is that “Smart Growth” is not effective, not environmentally sound, and not sustainable. In short “Smart Growth” is really Unsmart Growth; it is a made-up vision that results in costly decisions. It is disappointing to observe that the Legislature and several people in the federal and Hawaii governments are supporters of Unsmart Growth.

I copy below an illuminating excerpt from Commuting in America III, published in 2006 by the Transportation Research Board in Washington, D.C. Commuting in America is the ultimate guide to understanding how and why Americans use urban transportation systems. It also provides insights of what works and what does not.

“There are immense governmental pressures trying to create a more clustered-living lifestyle with less vehicle dependence and fewer household care concerns. The net effects of Smart Growth over time are likely to be minor with increases in density in the suburbs in some areas and declines in central city densities acting to balance out.”

“The desire for walking and “walkability” is very real and we should expect it to grow, but don’t be shocked if people drive to where they want to walk!”

Unsmart Growth thinking is responsible for a large portion of US and Hawaii traffic congestion and the resultant decreases in quality of life and competitiveness. This is because Unsmart Growth deemphasizes cost-effective road building; on the average a 10-mile trip on roads costs about 40 cents in taxes needed to build the road. Instead, Unsmart Growth emphasizes the building of cost-ineffective transit systems of obsolete technology, that is, steel-wheel on steel-rail transit; on the average a 10-mile trip on public transit costs about 400 cents in taxes needed to build the system; it is higher for rail than bus systems.

As Toyota’s Prius, Mercedes Smart Car, Tesla’s sport car, Peugeot’s hybrid diesel, Honda’s fuel cell Civic, and GM’s EV-1 (about to be reincarnated) have proven, technology will find cost-effective ways to reduce the nation’s dependency on fossil fuels by replacing or minimizing the internal combustion engine. Like steel-on-steel rail is a relic of the 19th century, the internal combustion engine is a relic of the 20th century and it will be largely replaced by alternative power plants in most vehicles.

A key realization is that alternative vehicle power plants are truly energy and environment friendly as opposed to mass transit that is dependent on electricity produced by burning diesel and forest-and-agriculture-land-depleting palm oil. Electricity production is environment-friendly if produced by hydro or nuclear methods, neither of which is feasible or desirable in Hawaii.

Unfortunately so far Unsmart Growth policies and practice on Oahu are a mix of the worst of what “Smart Growth” has to offer:

• Low density expansion in the Ewa plains,
• An absurd proposal for a rail line from Kapolei to Waipahu,
• No new roads or other major congestion relief projects,
• Unaffordable real estate prices in greater Honolulu,
• No real-time traffic management including inept accident clearance, and lacking parade, special event and construction pre-planning and rerouting; and,
• Strong opposition to modern ideas such as tolls for new roads and public-private partnerships (PPP).

The outcome is predictable: Decreasing quality of life, decreasing attractiveness to tourists, decreasing overall productivity, and, of course, more taxes to sustain infrastructure boondoggles costing billions, a crumbling road and sewer system, solid waste disposal at a crisis level, and hefty penalties from the EPA for sewer treatment non-compliance.

Six important steps to get smart about these issues include:

• Realize our modest financial capabilities and large obligations,
• Enable infrastructure finance tools such as tolls and PPPs,
• Understand what people need and want,
• Apply periodic audits and specific accountability standards to agencies responsible for designing, implementing, operating and maintaining public infrastructure,
• Get rid of utopias about smart growth, transit oriented development, and steel wheel on steel rail trains, and,
• Design and implement real solutions for transportation, energy and environmental challenges.

Panos D. Prevedouros, PhD is a Professor of Transportation Engineering for the Department of Civil Engineering at the University of Hawaii at Manoa; President of the Hawaii Highway Users Alliance (HHUA.org); a member of the Subcommittee Chair, Freeway Operations, Transportation Research Board and a member of the Board of Scholars, Grassroot Institute of Hawaii. He can be reached at mailto:pdp@hawaii.edu

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