ATI The Alliance for Traffic Improvement

Seeking cost effective ways to reduce traffic congestion on Oahu

We were thrilled to hear of a new group, the Committee for Balanced Transportation,  “pushing for a fair and balanced discussion about transportation in Hawai’i.”

We rushed to their website, www.saveoahu.org, only to find that it’s same old, same old, group now under a new umbrella organization and still dedicated to reactivating the 1992 rail proposal. The only person missing from this group is Bob Fishman. But, wait ….

Anyway, their website has an attack on us (unnamed) they list four matters they say are Fictions:

1. "Honolulu does not have the population to support rail transit." 
   OUR ANSWER: See Myth #1 and Myth # 8.
2. "Transit is a declining industry and ridership is going down."
   OUR ANSWER: See Myth # 3
3.  "The Light Rail “Boom” of the Sixties and Seventies is over and no new systems are being developed."
   OUR ANSWER: We have never said that. What we have said is that all it means is that our community is a lot less gullible than the others. See the very appropriate original version of The Emperor’s New Clothes.
4. "Why should we support transit on Oahu? Only six percent of the people use transit to get to work."
   OUR ANSWER: Again, we have never said that; we have always used the 2000 Census data of 8.3 percent. But, come to think of it, what is the big difference between 6 and 8 percent?

Amusingly, their website information is on a tab labeled FACTOID. The American Heritage Dictionary defines "factoid" as, “Unverified or inaccurate information that is presented in the press as factual, often as part of a publicity effort, and that is then accepted as true because of constant repetition.”

Isn't that the City's traditional turf?