Island Voices
Bus Rapid Transit proposal won't work

By Wendell Lum
Planning Committee co-chairman, Kane'ohe Neighborhood Board

It’s funny that our O‘ahu Metropolitan Planning Organization has a list of congestion-relief projects while our City Council is trying to promote the Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) system.

The system actually would add to our traffic congestion along and around the corridor suggested.

The loss of one lane or, in most cases, two lanes of automobile traffic is why coning off similar lanes for a demonstration project to show traffic congestion has been suggested.

The BRT would have poor average ride times because of its integration with at-grade traffic situations along portions of its suggested rapid-transit corridor. That would not take people out of their cars to use the BRT as an alternative form of transportation, leading to unreachable expectations of ridership.

Only a grade-separated light-rail transit system with its own uninterrupted guideway would keep it free of the problems that every at-grade transit system would encounter. A fast-transit system would effectively make higher ridership for public transit and induce drivers to leave their cars at home.

The Skytrain in Vancouver, British Columbia, has done away with traffic congestion. A recent addition of 13 miles to its existing 18-mile system was overwhelmingly supported by residents.

Light rail is the only real solution for our congestion problem today, and for the next 25 years and beyond. It should have been included in the city's draft environmental impact statement, but was deliberately left out. It is just one of the three reasons that I see the Federal Transit Administration not accepting the current impact statement, as is. The other two are:

Any adverse environmental effects that could not be avoided should the BRT proposal be implemented.

Any irreversible and irretrievable commitments of resources should the proposal be implemented.

Until a grade-separated light rail alternative is done with an appropriate environmental impact statement, we will never know the actual price we have to pay for the best solution to increase ridership for public transit and really lessen traffic congestion.

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