March 30, Honolulu
Advertiser.
It headlines, “City officials
to ‘huddle.’” My dictionary defines ‘huddle’ as “A
small private conference or meeting.” As if we
didn’t know. First off, no one in Hawaii’s
transportation industry has been invited (to the
best of our knowledge) and you can tell the
outcome of these groups by who gets invited to
“huddle.” The members of the ‘huddle’ will
undoubtedly have a VISION which will be (are you
ready?), rail transit, provider of the orgasmic
W-H-O-O-O-S-H into town. So much for “open and
transparent process” that Mufi promised us. Seems
like same old, same old, to us.
March 30, Midweek. p. 18.( not available on the
web).
Rick Hamada used his regular
column to lambaste Abercrombie’s arrogance in his
ultimatum to local legislators. Rick puts it as,
“all about ultimatum, all about muscle.” And, all
about power. Rick made the point that Abercrombie
didn’t create the wealth he wants to tax, nor did
our legislators. But they have no qualm in taxing
those who did. Good column, Rick.
March
30, 2005.
The case against rail transit and for the
alternatives on one page:
In an effort to have a simple
one-page handout we have produced this new one
that can be accessed by clicking on the underlined
headline above. It's great for a single page
handout.
March
29, 2005.
Abercrombie misleads again:
Congressman Abercrombie told a
Senate hearing that we needed rail to reduce
traffic congestion and that anyone opposed to rail
was stupid and a member of the Flat Earth Society
(see March 22). He told the Star-Bulletin (3/23
editorial) that he expected
"
the federal government would contribute more than
half of the total cost, estimated at $2.6
billion." The fact is that the Federal Transit
Administration has placed a limit of $500 million
on each fixed guideway project as they told
the Oahu Metropolitan Planning Organization last
year.
READ MORE
Abercrombie
might say that he can get special legislation
passed to circumvent this. However, it's a
Republican Congress, 71 projects around the
country are vying for funding and the FTA only has
New Starts (Sec. 5309) funds of $1 billion
annually for the entire country. Good
luck!
March
27, 2005.
Honolulu: Fewest road miles per capita:
The Federal Highway
Administration (FHWA) shows that Honolulu has the
fewest 'Miles of Roadway Per Person' than any of
the 401 Urbanized Areas that the FHWA tracks,
which is basically anywhere with a population
greater than 50,000. Only Honolulu has just 1.5
miles of road per 1,000 persons.
See FHWA rankings
Our
opinion:
Intuitively,
the general public understands that we have a
traffic problem and not a public transportation
problem. Even the Chamber of Commerce is beginning
to understand this. We reported their remarks on
March 19, when they said,
"
"that more research needs to be done to determine
the causes of our traffic challenges, and whether
[rail] transit is the solution ... there is
a possibility this may not be a mass transit
issue, but more of a transportation issue or to be
specific a traffic issue." Maybe, one of these
days, our Congressional delegation will get
it.
Rail's operating subsidy $52 million annually:
That was the City's estimate
from the 1992 plan.
READ MORE
Change made to 'Contacting Officials' tab:
We now link to the State
maintained site that returns the name of your
State Senator and Representative when you enter
your street name. See 'Contacting
officials' tab to the left.
March
24, 2005.
The Left gets it Right
The Progressive Policy
Institute, proponents of the ‘third way,’ have
just released a 14-page critique of:
“the congestion coalition (a
small, but extremely influential anti-highway,
anti-car, and anti-suburban coalition) has changed
the focus of transportation policy from one
expanding supply to one of restraining demand and
getting people out of cars.” It also says,
“Progressives should define congestion as a
problem of inadequate infrastructure. They should
support an array of policies designed to give
Americans the world-class transportation
infrastructures they deserve, including public
transit, biking and walking trails, and expanded
and less congested roads.” Here are some excerpts
from
"Politics of
Gridlock"
which are must reading (there's
also a link to the complete
article.)
March
22, 2005.
Rail tax
bill passes Senate Committee, 4-1
At
yesterday’s hearing on the rail tax bill, our
hirsute Congressman, Neil Abercrombie, testified
in a foul mood about the absolute stupidity of
those who opposed the rail tax bill and said they
were members of the Flat Earth Society. Senator
Slom firmly put him in his place. As expected the
bill passed the Committee with only Senator Slom
dissenting. There were some great testimonies in
opposition to the bill while those favoring it,
including Abercrombie’s, were testifying as though
rail transit would cure traffic congestion when
the record is quite clear that it will not.
See
1991 Rail Evaluation
and
Congestion
Study
.
We also suggested yesterday during testimony that
elected officials might peruse the 1991 study done
by the Office of State Planning, called “An
Evaluation of the Honolulu Rapid Transit Project.”
The full study is available at the Municipal
Library but we have culled out some of the juicier
excerpts for you.
READ MORE
We also said that, like the Emperor in the fable,
this train has no clothes.
The
original story
has
elected officials totally persuaded that the con
men's new cloth "had the strange quality of being
invisible to anyone who was unfit for his office
or unforgivably stupid.” In other words, if you
can’t see that trains will reduce traffic
congestion, you are unfit for office. Thus,
predictably, the bill passed.
READ THE
STORY
About those capitalist toll
roads:
On page A6 of today’s Wall Street Journal, is a
report that “Chinese toll-road operator Jiangsu
Expressway Co. said net profit last year slipped
1% … after it booked a provision for $27.3
million
for the expansion of its Shanghai-Nanjing
Expressway.”
OUR OPINION: It is really quite strange
that even though the communist People’s Republic
of China favors privately operated toll roads, the
elected officials of our People’s Republic appear
to find the idea unthinkable.
March
19, 2005.
Senate
Committees hears rail tax bill on Monday
The Senate Transportation and Governmental Affairs
Committees will hear HB 1309, HD2, this Monday at
1:15 PM in Conference Room 224. We urge you
to testify either in writing, or in person. As
long as it is less than 5 pages, fax it addressed
to Senator Lorraine Inouye's Transportation
Committee c/o
T
he Senate Sergeant-At-Arms Office at 586-6659 at
least 24 hours prior to the hearing adding that 30
copies are needed.
READ MORE
.
Today's
Star-Bulletin cartoon says it about rail:
Finally: Chamber of Commerce to oppose rail
tax bill:
The Chamber's
Monday Report will announce that their Board of
Directors has voted to oppose
HB1309
HD2 — the rail tax bill. They believe "that more
research needs to be done to determine the causes
of our traffic challenges, and whether mass
transit is the solution ... there is a
possibility this may not be a mass transit issue,
but more of a transportation issue or to be
specific a traffic issue." Well
said.
READ MORE
The
Chamber now joins Small Business Hawaii and NFIB
who have been opposed to this bill for some time.
This means that all the major general business
organizations in Hawaii are now opposing the bill.
In addition, the Hawaii Board of Realtors, the
Retail Merchants Association of Hawaii, the League
of Women Voters and ATI, of
course,
are also opposed.
Tax Foundation blitzes the rail tax:
Lowell Kalapa
analyzes all the tax and revenue increases in last
Monday's column calling the Senate rail tax bill
"the most disgusting piece of legislation."
READ MORE
March
11, 2005.
Dale Evans
answers nonsense from City consultants:
Dale is CEO of
Charley's Taxi and, as such, deals with moving the
aged and infirm on a daily basis. She tells us
that Wes
Frysztacki's
(a non-bid City consultant) opinion that rail
transit is ideal for seniors, is ridiculous. She
explains why:
READ MORE
March
2, 2005.
Rail
proponents reposition our argument:
In a clever move,
our opponents have repositioned our argument that
buses on HOT lanes are a better transit option
than rail, into a "light" rail vs. highway
argument. FACT: Honolulu has 4,200 bus stops; the
rail line has just 19 stations. Virtually everyone
will have to use buses to get to the rail stations
and most likely a bus to get from the destination
station to the workplace.
Put another way: With the HOT lanes option, if
you live in Mililani, say, you can take an Express
bus on the freeway to the Waikele area where the
bus gets onto the HOT lanes and starts traveling
at 55 mph into town and descends off the HOT lanes
onto Nimitz HIghway at Pier 16 where you can be
dropped of at various stops downtown. This is a
faster option than the 22.5 mph rail, offers fewer
transfers, and does not require a tax.
In addition, the space not occupied by buses and
vanpools will be occupied by toll paying
automobiles. The function of the toll is to
manage the traffic by pricing, in the
same way that we manage every other scarce
resource in life. By varying the price every
six minutes, as does the San Diego I-15 tollway,
you can keep the HOT lanes free flowing AND
full.
READ MORE
March
1, 2005.
We found
another charming view of the rail
line:
This one shows the 75-foot high station at the
foot of Bishop Street. The stations are quite
massive since they have to have elevators and
escalators on both sides of the street to comply
with ADA requirements.
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