Honolulutraffic.com
Offering cost-effective ways to reduce traffic congestion in Honolulu
What YOU can do: Read All you need to know about the Mayor’s rail plan then see who we are, then join us and volunteer with Stop Rail Now, get some petitions signed and also contact your elected officials.
LATEST NEWS:
May 8, 2008.
City lists $108 million in contracts for rail:
The list of contractors and the amounts of their contracts shows that a significant amount of it is for what the city euphemistically calls "outreach," but which in reality is pure hard sell. Examples are $120,000 for former Secretary of Transportation Mineta, $500,000 for local flack Elisa Yadao, Pat Lee $216,000, the ever charming John DeSoto $150,000 and so on. Any insider information that you have about those on the list will be most welcome.
City produces maps of proposed rail stations:
The maps show an overall map of all stations and the other link is to detailed maps of each station.
Council fends off attempt to kill technology bills:
The four pro-rail councilmembers, Garcia, Apo, Okino and Tam attempted to have new Bills 36 and 38, relating to transit technology, "filed," which means they would not be referred to the Transportation Committee as is usually routinely done. The other five councilmembers opposed that move and defeated the attempt by votes of 5-4.
May 7, 2008.
Larry Price warns officials that the initiative is serious:
In today's MidWeek, Larry Price's the Price is Right column for this week is titled, "Ready For A Rail Referendum." The most important paragraph is the final one where he says:
"The 'Stop the Rail' movement has the ubiquity of Internet access and information technology on its side, and there is no question the public is now more connected than ever before and firmly believes their wishes are not being addressed by arrogant elected officials. Said another way, they have few practical hurdles before them they cannot clear with ease. Their real obstacles are mental ones. Our governmental officials would be well-advised to consider this referendum worthy of their utmost attention."
May 6, 2008.
Council meets tomorrow on transit:
The City Council meets tomorrow morning, Wednesday, May 7 at 10:00 AM to discuss among other matters, the creation of a Transit Authority, and Bills 36 & 38 relating to transit technology. One is for "rubber tire on concrete" and the other "rubber tire and maglev."
COMMENT: "Benefits" of rail change over time:
First they shouted at their rallies, “Traffic Sucks!” and
that we had to reduce traffic congestion and so we needed rail. When we pointed
out that their own studies showed that traffic congestion would be far worse
with rail, they changed gears.
They said OK, it will not improve congestion, but it will give people a choice. When in time the public didn’t buy that, they moved on to development.
They said the major advantage of rail was that it would allow us to build transit-oriented developments (TODs) around most of the stations. Now that it is revealed that all TODs require heavy subsidies to make their “vibrant, walkable, live and work” neighborhoods palatable to buyers, they are changing emphasis to “it will provide jobs in this poor economic environment.”
The fact is that the federal funds will not come close to funding all the items that must be purchased offshore. This covers trains, steel rail lines, escalators, elevators, electrical sub-stations, computers and the myriad pieces of equipment that go into furnishing a rail transit system. What remains of our local funds will go construct a totally uneconomic rail transit system.
It seems to us that we can accomplish providing the jobs by just paying the workers. At least that way we will not be building something that will create heavy annual losses.
In writing this, we are reminded of Houston businessman Bob Lanier who opposed rail transit in 1990. He was elected Mayor replacing the pro-rail Mayor Kathy Whitmire.
He said about rail: “First they say, `It's cheaper.' When you show it costs more, they say, ` It's faster.' When you show it's slower, they say, `It serves more riders.' When you show there are fewer riders, they say, `It brings economic development.'When you show no economic development, they say, `It helps the image.'When you say you don't want to spend that much money on image, they say, `It will solve the pollution problem.' When you show it won't help pollution, they say, finally, `It will take time. You’ll see.” From the Houston Metropolitan Magazine, November 1990, page 49.
May 5, 2008.
Our comments on the city’s latest spin:
The city has posted what it says are the “TOP 5 REASONS FOR RAIL” on its website. We have responded with our comments on it and the comments include the city's top 5 reasons in full.
The best indicator that rail transit is a poor choice is that the City has to spin, obfuscate and toy with the truth trying to drum up support for it.
When they behave this way they essentially concede that our transit proposal, HOT BRT, or Express Buses on HOT Lanes, is superior to rail. Otherwise they would merely state the truth about both projects.
We believe that an even handed comparison between HOT BRT and rail transit would show that HOT BRT can carry more people, is twice as fast, is far less costly and offers greatly reduced traffic congestion.
It is important that the city's "reasons" and our "comments" be read to understand how the city is spinning their story.
May 4, 2008.
And this is all legal?:
The Advertiser's Sean Hao has a story today headlined, "Transit firms backing Mayor: Contractors have contributed $163,000 towards his re-election." Here are three excerpts from this story; see if this sounds legal to you:
advocates for infrastructure in general," said Parsons Brinckerhoff spokeswoman Judy Cooper.
John Pritchett's "A Hawaiian Sense of Place."
May 3, 2008.
Please welcome another 35 new members:
Mike Fuller Robert Kay Bob Briggs Pat Sylva Barbara Nakamura
James Wiedman James Leith Paula Boyce Brett Kurashige
Catherine Robinson Charles Gill Chester Lau Albert Canon
Eve Leith John Rogers Joyel Horita Mark Webster Matt Reynolds
Mark Myer Sean Nichol Janice Pechauer Michael Lee Gerhard Hamm
Alice Silva William Crowe Ellie Crowe Jan O'Donnell Talifaitasi Satele
Warren Woodward Talk Story Magazine, Inc. George Berish Ethan Boone
Caryl Joy Campbell Susii Hearst Leonard Franzen
Today's Star-Bulletin carries op/ed on HOT lanes cost:
Today's SB carries an op/ed by Cliff Slater, City glossed over truth about cost of HOT lanes ,which deals with the completely exaggerated cost projected by the City for constructing HOT lanes.
We also have posted his Star-Bulletin op/ed of March 30, Transit-oriented development not a panacea for our communities which we had forgotten to cover at the time. In it he points out that, "the public does not generally value the "higher density, vibrant neighborhood" features of TODs. We know that because home buyers and retailers will not pay the full costs of the apartments, houses and shops that have been built. To make them saleable, taxpayers have had to provide heavy subsidies.
"TODs are now often being touted as a major reason for building rail transit even though there are no TODs that are not heavily subsidized. Are our planners and elected officials proposing heavily subsidizing rail transit in order to heavily subsidize TODs? You gotta love the way these folks think."
Not that old General Motors myth again:
Every so often the old myth about General Motors destroying the U.S. streetcar system is trotted out and once more we have to write a rebuttal. Yesterday's Star-Bulletin carried the following letter under the heading "Don't let auto lobby derail another train":
"It is beyond belief that some are acting outraged at the "radical idea" of rail here. Early in the last century we had trains, streetcars and ferries running all over the San Francisco Bay area and down to San Jose. It was simple and cheap to get around. After the war, General Motors, et al, changed all that with their scheme to sell buses everywhere. The same happened in Los Angeles, which had Red Trains running far and wide and were destroyed. Look at LA. now.
San Diego was smart enough to build a beautiful rail system, which runs from suburbs to the north to the Mexican border. We must not listen to the naysayers here who would cripple us. In the past we had a train that ran out to Haleiwa, but we let the auto industry kill that, too. Nancy Bey Little, Honolulu."
The real facts are that starting around 1920, before General Motors ever got near the bus business, cities began dismantling streetcar systems in favor of buses. It began with the smaller cities and continued over 40 years. Honolulu began dismantling its streetcars in 1933. The Advertiser said at the time, “Honolulu is doing
what all progressive mainland communities are nowadays doing: getting rid of streetcars
and replacing them with good-size buses...we certainly will finally progress to
the point of abolishing streetcar tracks. And that will certainly be a vast
improvement.”
Three weeks later, the Japanese language Hawaii Hochi agreed, stating that buses, “are vastly better than the rattle-trap, clanging streetcars. Instead of an ordeal to be dreaded, a ride in these buses is an enjoyable, restful experience."
By 1941 Honolulu had finished replacing its streetcars and become an all-bus city; none of the buses were from GM, they were all Twin Coaches. For more detail, read General Motors and the Demise of Streetcars.
May 2, 2008.
Today's PBN Survey results show 70% want to vote:
Last Monday's Schneider v. Slater podcast:
On the Rick Hamada Show last Monday the whole hour from 7:00 AM to 8:00 AM was spent debating the rail issue. It was between Mike Schneider, Managing Partner of InfraConsult LLC, and former Executive VP of PB Consult, the consulting arm of Parsons Brinckerhoff, and Cliff Slater, Chair of Honolulutraffic.com. Fortunately it was during Rick Hamada's podcast hour.
Rail as a Quality of Life issue:
The Mayor keeps telling us that we need rail because it is about our Quality of Life. This short video clip demonstrates the relationship between rail transit in Hawaii and Quality of Life.
Promises, promises, promises, promises:
