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Both the Honolulu Star-Bulletin and the Honolulu Advertiser ran stories this morning about the proposed mass transit plan for Oahu. The environmental impact study will consider three routes, according to this scoping plan posted by the Advertiser. This map from the Advertiser lays out the route alternatives:

1. (in solid red) the City Council’s plan, which diverted the line through Salt Lake to get councilman Romy Cachola’s swing vote;
2. (in dashed red) the council’s plan with a loop through Honolulu International Airport; and
3. (in dashed blue) the plan that some city council members really wanted, going through the airport and bypassing Salt Lake.

Council chair Ann Kobayashi is still angry that the mayor is focusing on rail. However, the scoping study indicated that several modes will be evaluated, including “light rail, rapid rail, rubber-tired guided vehicles, and magnetic levitation and monorail systems”.

Neither newspaper mentioned that Kobayashi, along with Donovan Delz Cruz, Todd Apo, and Cachola, had announced in March that they would visit Amsterdam and Paris to visit high-speed bus lines built by Phileas Advanced Public Transport System of France. Their trip would be paid for by Phileas, and the plans were announced on the City Council’s web site and mentioned in the Honolulu Weekly.

UH-Manoa professor emeritus Tom Dinell wrote a good commentary about the rubber-tire bus alternative in the Honolulu Star-Bulletin on February 4. Bus routes would be easier to reconfigure than a train, and the high-speed buses could also go into areas like Waianae and Mililani. Of course, these buses would need dedicated lanes in town, and the city must ban other vehicles from these lanes in order for the system to work well. The fixed guideway bus system should not become an “emergency lane” for city vehicles.

As much as I like the idea of trains, high-speed buses may be easier to install, use and maintain on this island. As Dinell pointed out, it’s much easier to replace a bus than a train when the technology improves.

Dkosopedia has an excellent summary of the Honolulu transit struggle in the 21st century, for readers who want to learn more.

Sports: Even NBC can’t ignore the fact that the stadiums are empty in Athens. I remember the Atlanta Olympics. Tickets got sold, and people showed up to watch. It’s not happening in Athens because the tickets are too expensive and Athens is hard to reach. Beijing has plenty of people to fill the stands in 2008, but the city is sinking. Buildings are crumbling, and the airport is threatened. So 2008 may be the first Olympics called off because of overdevelopment. Plus, there’s still the threat of an international boycott over China’s handling of human rights, Taiwan or North Korea. The problems in Athens and Beijing give Paris, London and New York City some real advantages for hosting the 2012 Olympics. Then again, what sane city really wants the Olympics these days?

Tech: Yahoo! News - Microsoft Cuts Prices As Paris Eyes Linux: “The software giant agreed to cut prices to suppliers who work with the city ‘to the order of’ 60 percent, said a Paris official, who spoke on condition of anonymity Thursday. ”

Tech: The New York Times > Opinion > Making Votes Count: Gambling on Voting: “Election officials say their electronic voting systems are the very best. But the truth is, gamblers are getting the best technology, and voters are being given systems that are cheap and untrustworthy by comparison. There are many questions yet to be resolved about electronic voting, but one thing is clear: a vote for president should be at least as secure as a 25-cent bet in Las Vegas.”

World: Yahoo! News - Paris Goes After SUVs: “Bulky four-by-fours could be banned from clogging up the chic streets of Paris after a top official in the capital’s left-wing government described them as a polluting ‘caricature of a car’ unsuited to city life. An anti-sports utility vehicle (SUV) resolution passed by the city council could lead to a ban on the popular vehicles in about 18 months if it is included in an overall project to improve traffic flow in the city, Deputy Mayor Denis Baupin said Wednesday. ”