Why Honolulu needs rail

by billso on Sunday, 8 June 2008

The anti-rail forces on Oahu are focusing their efforts on a deceptive petition campaign that doesn’t address some major reasons why Honolulu needs a rail rapid transit system. The train would help keep cars off the island, and get cars off the H1 and downtown roads during peak commuting times. The train may not help traffic on fort Weaver Road, but their traffic problems need different solutions.

No new roads

StopRailNow has an alternatives page that lists several solutions like underpasses, elevated toll lanes, The proposed elevated lanes won’t fit on some sections of the H-1. The Outdoor Circle isn’t happy with the rail proposal, but even they realize that miles of flyovers and elevated roads would look worse.

StopRailNow hasn’t discussed where people would drive when they got off these elevated roads, because the answer is obvious: on the same overcrowded surface roads we have now.

There won’t be any extra lanes on the Nimitz Highway, King Street or Ala Moana Boulevard because there’s no room for extra lanes. the best that can be done is reducing the width of lanes, which is being tried on Ala Moana Boulevard west of Ward Avenue.

There won’t be a bridge or tunnel around Pearl Harbor, because the US Navy will never allow that kind of security risk. I’ve read many suggestions like this, mostly from people who live around Fort Weaver Road and commute through downtown. Fort Weaver Road and the Kapolei area have expanded faster than the city can build roads.

No room for more parking

The anti-rail advocates haven’t discussed where or how all of the extra cars on these toll roads will park. There’s no room for new parking lots or garages in downtown Honolulu, the Ala Moana area, or Waikiki. Repainting lots with narrower spaces won’t work well, either.

We live on an island. There’s no room to builds more parking garages, unless we erect them on park land and tear down homes and businesses.

Uninsured drivers?

Another one of StopRailNow’s alternatives is a crackdown on uninsured drivers. The web site estimates this would take 15 to 30 percent of current vehicles off Oahu’s roads. Too bad they didn’t cite their source — there’s one lonely link on that page to Cliff Slater’s honolulutraffic.com web site.

Will these uninsured drivers join carpools or take The Bus? Who will pay for the dozens of new buses that are already needed? Bus ridership has increased a great deal in the last few months.

The site doesn’t discuss what will happen to these thousands of abandoned cars, either. Will they be shipped off-island, or will the cars rust by the sides of abandoned roads? Assuming that the majority of uninsured motorists cannot afford auto insurance, this solution sounds more like economic discrimination than a viable alternative.

On 4 June 2008, Republican congressional candidate and city council member Charles Djou proposed a city ordinance that would let the Honolulu Police Department boot cars for unpaid citations or lack of insurance. Sounds like the state needs to revise its vehicle registration process so that applicants are checked for outstanding citations when they attempt to transfer a title. In fact, Charles Djou and the Honolulu city council should probably just let the Hawaii state legislature address this issue.

See this Star-Bulletin article for more details, including a quote that sounds like Djou was reading from a StopRailNow brochure:

Djou said he believes removing noncompliant vehicles off the highways would “probably do more to alleviate traffic congestion than anything else the city government could possibly come up with.”

If gas prices continue to rise, more motorists will stop driving because they cannot afford the fuel. Fuel prices will keep rising after the November 2008 election, too

How many signatures?

The anti-rail groups must get 45,000 certified signatures by 31 July 2008 to get their ill-advised referendum on the November general election ballot. Dennis Callan, the co-chair of StopRailNow.com, believes that only 30,000 certified signature are needed, according to this Advertiser article:

The different counts result from varying interpretations of city rules governing voter-based ballot initiatives. The city clerk’s office said Stop Rail Now needs signatures equal to at least 10 percent of total voters registered in the last mayoral election. That equates to 44,525 signatures.

Stop Rail Now argues it needs signatures equal to 10 percent of the votes cast for mayor in the last election. That equates to 30,026 signatures, which is 14,499 fewer signatures than the city’s figure.

According to the Advertiser’s 28 May 2008 article, Callan hasn’t even asked the City Clerk for a ruling on this issue. Is this another example of the short-range planning expertise of the anti-rail forces? Is StopRailNow.com afraid of the answer? Does the group plan to sue its way onto the ballot if they don’t collect enough signatures?

By the time the rail line goes into operation, gas may be higher than $5 a gallon. Where will the anti-rail groups be then? Their leaders might not be very happy, because their taxicab and auto-related businesses will face increased costs, even as automobile usage drops. Perhaps some of the anti-rail proponents have already joined the thousands of Oahu commuters who are taking their cars off the roads and using vans, bikes and buses.