honolulutraffic.comformerly The Alliance for Traffic Improvement |
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Seeking cost effective ways to reduce traffic congestion on Oahu |
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October 2005
Toru! Toru! Toru! The rail epic continues: In today’s Council Transp These companies are charging that their replacement was pure
politics by the City Administration. The city had Parsons replace the two
public relations firms with Community Planning and Engineering, Inc., a member
of the American Public W Bruce Coppa, Executive VP of Communications Pacific,
testified that Pacific Business News rated his company the #1 public relations firm in
Also testifying was their att At the end of the meeting, officials from Parsons were asked
to testify but declined. Subsequently the Council voted to go into Executive
Session on the advice of C Earlier at the meeting, Parsons and the city said they would reveal the scope of the alternatives being studied by way of a mailing and the opening of a website. Public Scoping Meetings will be held about December 13/14 this year. We will be hearing more about this shortly. READ MORE: Kitty Lagareta's steamy letter to the Mayor and his response to it.
Clinton adviser on subsidizing cars for the poor: Writing in the current Washington Monthly, Margy Waller, formerly a domestic adviser in the Clinton-Gore White House, who now writes about transportation and poverty, says that, Subsidizing America's poor commuters "would reward work boost the economy and transform lives." READ MORE
American Society
of Civil Engineers' November meeting:
Reason's Poole publishes VEB study: Reason Foundation's Robert Poole and Ted Balaker released a new study today, "Virtual Exclusive Busways: Improving Urban Transit while relieving congestion." This is what we have been advocating for Honolulu under the name of HOT lanes and HOTways. READ MORE
HOT Lanes to be added to Capital Beltway
Honolulutraffic.com was the first to propose VEBs: As alert readers will remember, for some years we have been proposing that the most efficient way to provide additional highway capacity would be to build reversibile HOT lanes where buses and vanpools would have priority and the remaining space would sold to motorists paying a toll. This does three things. First, dynamically pricing HOT lanes provides a management tool that will result in reliable, fast and uncongested travel for bus riders and those motorists willing to pay a toll. Second, it will remove 25 percent of the current cars from parallel freeways. Third, it raises toll revenues that will pay for half its cost. It turns out that the part about "buses and vanpools would have priority" was a unique element that we had added after some long discussions with Washington FTA officials in 2002. Now comes the originator of HOT lanes, Robert Poole, founder of Reason Foundation, touting the virtues of VEBs, Virtual Exclusive Busways, in today's Wall Street Journal. He describes exactly our HOT lanes proposal and how Houston is the first to implement it. READ MORE Should we change the name of our proposal? Maybe to Virtual Bus/Rapid Transit? HOT BRT? HOT Skyways? Comments, please.
New Highway Users Group holds first public meeting: First, Brennon Morioka, deputy head of Hawaii DOT will make a presentation, "The People of Hawaii Deserve Better Roads: A Statewide Strategy for Improving Road Infrastructure." A panel consisting of representatives from the General Contractors' Association, Grace Pacific, Cement & Concrete Products Industry, Hawaii Asphalt Paving Industry, and Federal Highways Administration, will discuss the issue. This presentation by the Hawaii Highway Users Alliance will be next Wednesday, October 26 from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. at the the Honolulu Country Club. The public is welcome. SEE DETAILS
Britain moves closer to a national congestion pricing scheme: The
London Sunday Times reports that more and more British cities
are switching to congestion pricing in an effort to combat worsening
traffic congestion. They say, "The move heralds the first step towards a national road pricing scheme that
could see drivers being charged anything from 2p per mile on quiet roads to
£1.34 per mile in congestion hotspots at peak times.
Areas considering road pricing include big cities, such as Birmingham,
Bristol and Newcastle, as well as smaller conurbations, such as Stoke-on-Trent
in Staffordshire, and Shrewsbury in Shropshire." READ MORE
Seattle Mayor writes Mufi's speech: Seattle
Mayor Greg Nickels wrote and delivered a speech last month that
could be a great template for the speech that Mayor Mufi will
likely be giving a year or two from now:
Portland to get private toll roads The Oregonian reported on October 12 that, "The State's top transportation official is recommending an Australian company to develop three toll roads in the Portland area." READ MORE
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