2008 August 05 | billso.com

Tunnels and toll roads around Honolulu?

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Posted Tuesday, 5 August 2008

I wish I’d seen Trevor Yee’s excellent article called Why HPT Lanes Won’t Work in Honolulu before I wrote my previous billso.com article on the proposed rail system. Trevor raises several good points about toll lanes. These lanes are much larger than a fixed guideway, and they depend upon toll revenue. I am seeing fewer cars on Honolulu’s roads these days, even as the school year gets underway.

Doug Carlson also had some good points in his recent post called The Closer Rail Gets, the More “Way Out” the Alternatives Are; a Sea Tunnel Around Oahu?! Doug takes on the foolish notion that a tunnel could be built in the Pacific Ocean. Environmentalists, the US Department of Defense, and a host of other groups would block an Oahu tunnel or causeway proposal if taxpayers didn’t scream about the costs.

Carlson also mentions a Honolulu Star-Bulletin commentary in which Hans Rosendal suggested that electric vehicles might make a good alternative to rail and traditional automobiles. If gas prices continue to rise, such vehicles may be the only practical alternative for people who want to drive a car to Honolulu from the Windward side of the island. I’m just not sure an all-electric vehicle could make it over the mountains. See the Star-Bulletin article called Transit Matters: Electric Vehicles for more details.

Yesterday morning, I saw Honolulu mayoral candidate/UH-Manoa professor/rail opponent Panos Prevedouros on the corner of the Pali Highway and Vineyard Boulevard. He was out there holding his sign and waving by himself. I heard two honks within 5 minutes, which was surprising. That intersection gets a lot of automobile and bus traffic from Kailua and Kaneohe every weekday morning. I thought there were more Panos supporters out there, but perhaps they’ve switched to Ann Kobayashi’s camp.